Support World Bank loan to Eskom, says minister JANICE ROBERTS | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Apr 06 2010 15:11
All South Africans should support the granting of the World Bank loan to electricity parastatal Eskom, Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said on Tuesday. "All South Africans must support the loan because 25% of people are still waiting to have access to basic minimum electricity," she told reporters in Johannesburg. Peters was speaking after a roundtable discussion with Business Unity South Africa (Busa). She also confirmed that should Eskom fail to get the loan, "there is no plan B". She could also not shed any light on how the World Bank members would vote. The British government is reportedly under pressure to block South Africa's efforts to secure a $3,7-billion loan from the World Bank to construct the coal-fired Medupi power station. Joining Peters at Tuesday's news briefing, Busa chairperson Raymond Parsons said Busa was already on record as supporting the World Bank loan. "It's part of Eskom's broader borrowing programme. Eskom has already obtained a loan from the African Development Bank," Parsons said. "The World Bank loan at this stage is essential and we must remember that the security and expansion of electrical power is a pro-poor mechanism ... we must see it that way," Parsons added. The World Bank was due to give its verdict on the loan on Thursday. Turning to questions about the ANC's involvement in the building of the Medupi power station through its 25% stake in Hitachi Africa via Chancellor House, Peters said the issue should be addressed by the treasury general of the ANC. Climate change The minister said she had discussed several issues with Busa. In what she termed a "very good meeting", issues such as the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) were discussed. "After promulgating IRP 1 in December 2009, which addressed a specific objective in relation to the Eskom multi-year price determination, we have set ourselves a target of June 2010 for the next IRP." The minister said she had asked Busa to participate in the stakeholder consultation process, which would commence shortly and would be open to all stakeholders. The IRP would drive the issues of climate change and renewable energy, Peters said. "We were very vocal in Copenhagen, calling on developing countries to up their commitments and the IRP will make provision on a voluntary basis to set South Africa on a path to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions." Parsons said a very strong platform for collaboration between business and the government to meet the energy challenge and "to keep the lights on" had been created by the meeting. "We must work together and find new ways to deal with the energy crisis," he said. Asked if Eskom had yet found a new CEO, Peters said that the parastatal's board was dealing with the matter. -- Sapa Source: Mail & Guardian Online Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-04-06-upport-world-bank-loan-to-eskom-says- minister -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . To unsubscribe, reply using "remove me" as the subject.
