The high cost of coal, which is used to produce South Africa’s 40,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity, is hurting the country’s economy, Mineral and Energy Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe said on Thursday.
According to the minister, there is need for coal producers to reduce the price of the commodity to save debt-ridden Eskom, which is being forced to pass on the cost to consumers of electricity.
“At these high prices of electricity, this economy is going to collapse,” Mantashe said at a mining conference in Johannesburg on Thursday.
The minister said the government was also engaging renewable energy producers to reduce the cost of the power that they feed into the national grid in order to cut costs for the struggling Eskom.
“We are talking to them. We are not instructing them,” Mantashe said of his talks with the coal producers.
NM/jn/APA