Erkhuleni City Hopes to Stop Its Reliance on Eskom by Buying Its Own Power Through R1bn Solar Plant Plan

• Ekurhuleni hopes to end its reliance on the national power utility by securing its own power for the city
• Ekurhuleni has plans to secure almost 700MW of electricity through an R1 billion 41MW solar plant
• The CEO of African Growth Partners said they will be ready to start building the project before year end

JOHANNESBURG - The city of Ekurhuleni hopes to end its reliance on Eskom with a plan to secure its own power.

The city is an industrial hub in the east of Johannesburg and the frequent blackouts posed by the national power utility have crippled its communities.

Ekurhuleni’s plan to secure almost 700MW of electricity through an R1 billion 41MW solar plant will commence in the end few months. The CEO of African Growth Partners Justin Naidoo said they have secured the finance for the project and will be ready to start building the project before the end of the year, according to News24.

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Cape Town and Durban have also requested proposals from companies to provide them with power. Aside from reducing loadshedding, the cities will also be lessening the impact on global warming by using renewable energy sources, Business Tech reported.

Public Enterprise Minister Pravin Gordhan suggests a ban on the sale of scrap metal to preserve infrastructure

In a related matter, Briefly News also reported Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan believes the best way to preserve freight rail infrastructure would require amending current laws for a while. Gordhan says the Government will have to place a temporary ban on the sale of scrap metal to prevent the theft and vandalism of rail infrastructure.

According to Gordhan, this would assure that there would be no market for the copper, rails and other infrastructure that is stolen and sold around the country, reports EWN.

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“It is my firm view that the export of scrap metal must be banned for a while, for a start, and that will ensure that there’s no market," said Gordhan.

The minister was replying to questions at the National Assembly of Parliament on Wednesday afternoon, 4 May and spoke about how he has been engaged with the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition to find ways to put an end to the destruction of public infrastructure, reports Fin24. Gordhan also touched on the advantages of investing in infrastructure from a trade point of view and stated that it would be highly advantageous for investors to co-invest with Transnet in the development of infrastructure.

Source: Briefly News