China offers to provide power to schools, hospitals
The Chinese government has offered to provide sun panels and generators in order to power schools and hospitals that are not exempt from loadshedding, while South Africa continues to grapple with the power crisis.
The Minister for Electricity in the Presidency, Kgosientso Ramokgopa made the announcement at a press briefing in Cape Town on Friday.
He told the media that China was the first to respond to the discussions he had with the representatives of various countries to assist South Africa.
“The Chinese are the first ones to come back to us and say that we will be able to provide you with this kind of equipment. There are still issues around generators, the quality and the spec just to make sure it is compatible with our own requirements. They have come to us. They have given us the value of those assets and we will determine where they will be installed. What we have to do on our part once we accept it is that this asset belongs to you, we will look after the asset.”
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Ramokgopa says the discussions are now around the customs duties and the taxes on the equipment once it lands in South Africa from China.
“It’s an issue to be discussed with Sars Customs, but I really don’t foresee that there will be a problem. It’s a grant, so you can’t be taxing. It’s a grant, someone is giving you,” explained the minister to the media.
This announcement by Ramokgopa comes while President Cyril Ramaphosa and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan are challenging the ruling in the High Court that schools, hospitals and police stations be exempt from loadshedding.
Ramokgopa emphasized again on Friday that the grid simply has no capacity to exempt these institutions.
