JOHANNESBURG – Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said his memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordan does not give him any procurement powers for renewable energy sources.
Last week, the president approved the MOU outlining the roles and responsibilities of the ministers.
This follows months of concerns that Ramokgopa’s role was undefined when his portfolio was created in March last year.
Ramokgopa said this MOU was to assist Eskom but it does not change the public procurement process at the utility.
“From the public procurement with regards to renewable energy sources that sits with the DMRE, it has not been brought into the ministry, so that dispensation remains but there is some ability for Eskom to get capacity… of course, the only bottleneck was that condition from National Treasury that they can’t enter into new generation procurement, so that’s a conversation we will have internally.”