“There is no double-speak on this. We are committed to what is set out in our IRP… clear on the mixed energy trajectory for our country,” said Ramaphosa in response to DA leader John Steenhuisen’s follow-up question.
“Minister Godongwana’s point was that South Africa’s energy transition will not be an immediate and wholesale abandonment of the country’s existing electricity sources, but a phasing-out of fossil fuels that may also involve transitional measures to maintain current coal and nuclear plants, and also the use of transitional sources like gas.
“We have to look at it more closely… There is a race in the world to capture the funding to address the just transition… I want to see more grant funding,” said Ramaphosa in response to IFP Chief Whip Narend Singh’s follow-up, also announcing that the presidential climate finance task team is about to publish a discussion document for South Africa’s just transition.
Steenhuisen pointed out the irony of well-paid ministers being subsidised under the ministerial handbook – and called for ministers and others to repay the benefits they received from April to when they were withdrawn.