By Kouthar Sambo

The three-day Africa Energy Indaba organized under the theme, “African Energy Transitioning from Aspiration to Action – Delivering a Sustainable and Prosperous Future”, took place on Tuesday at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC). The event will run until the 7 of March, as Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe announced his plans to introduce the ‘Gas Master Plan’ to eradicate energy poverty.

The Africa Energy Indaba kicks off

Speaking on VOC’s Drive Time show on Wednesday, the Head of the Department of Science and Innovations Energy Secretariat at Sanedi, Professor Sampson Mamphweli, said the Indaba has been going well, including the exhibition area.

“The minister (Gwede Mantashe) gave the keynote address on Tuesday, and he highlighted the issue of gas and that South Africa has gas coming from Mozambique, and he also indicated that Mozambique discovered some additional gas reserves, as well as in South African and Mpumalanga,” explained Mamphweli.

In my presentation on Wednesday on behalf of SENEDI, I spoke about the energy crises, said Mamphweli, and what we think be done to navigate the crisis.

“We indicated that we can use gas transition fuel because we can build small gas power stations quicker, including the renewable side of things. We also touched on the existing projects and initiatives by governments to deal with load shedding,” clarified Mamphweli.

“South Africa is still in an advanced stage in terms of installed capacity that we have the systems that we use, irrespective of the energy crisis as well.”

According to Mamphweli, there has never been a doubt about the energy mix going forward, and Minister Mantashe is introducing the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2019.

“He has never deviated from that because for him to do that, he needs to get deviations and concurrencies from National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA), which he is not going to get. In terms of policies, the IRP is the blueprint,” remarked Mamphweli.

He added that the new IRP 2023 implies that the conflict needs to be fixed before it can operate at an energy availability factor above 70%.

“We need to rapidly bring in new generation capacity from all kinds of sources, and the government has been assisting with the policies. The conflict needs to operate optimally so we can decommission it as we bring in new generation capacity,” reiterated Mamphweli.

Green Connection: the protest action

Green Connection launched a protest action to argue against the utilization of gas energy as a ‘transitional’ fuel source, given its impact on the climate.

“Based on reports released by the International Energy Agency, gas is 82 times more impactful than carbon dioxide due to the methane emissions that it releases. This is why we are concerned as this would lead to climate change,” Advocacy officer for the Green Connection Lisa Makaula

“During the State of the Nation Address (SONA), the President announced that there would be a climate response fund that would respond to this climate issues – but how can you solve the issue when you are also promoting the problem,” argued Makaula.

The situation is, therefore, contradictive, and we will need clarity on where the country is actually going, said Makaula.

Photo: The Green Connection/Facebook