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Gordhan: Power pains to last 2 more years

Cape Town - South Africa is likely to have adequate electricity supply in around two years, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Tuesday.

State power utility Eskom imposed rolling blackouts last week for the first time since 2008 after heavy rains wet coal stockpiles at coal-fired power stations, causing a temporary supply shortfall on the national grid.

South Africa is building three new power stations, including two massive coal-fired plants at Medupi and Kusile, and has approved projects worth R110bn from independent power producers to bolster energy supply.

"If we look at this package, I reckon that in the next two years or so we will have adequate electricity supply," Gordhan told parliament during a question and answer session.

With two months to go to a general election, opposition parties have seized on the power cuts to attack the record of the ANC, which has run South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994.

However, Gordhan refused to get drawn into a political argument over the issue.

"There is absolute frankness about where we stand so let us not mislead the public because it is election time," he said.

Eskom CEO Brian Dames said on Tuesday that the country's power supply remained constrained, reported Sapa.

"We are not out of the woods yet, the system remains tight and vulnerable to any changes as we go into winter," he told journalists in Johannesburg.

He added that the supply issues will continue to be a problem in the coming months unless the utility made aggressive interventions to save at least 3000MW.



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