PETER BRUCE: Mantashe bounces back straight off the wall of bureaucracy, but at least he saw the bricks
Mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe has been enjoying a purple patch ahead of the budget. Tripped up as vague and dismissive in his response to SA’s energy crisis after president Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation speech earlier in February, he bounced back with a raft of detail about new initiatives, including a fifth new renewables window, during the debate after Sona, and culminated on Monday with the publication of a long interview with Chris Yelland, an excellent journalist who specialises in energy.
The interview is everywhere. Yelland published the whole thing himself on Monday, but all the major news houses had it in full the next day. It is Gwede in full flight, and worth reading. He warns Cape Town not to go to court about being able to buy electricity from whomever it wants, and says the city should rather talk to find “solutions”. He sees “mischief” in the DA’s legal approach. He nails his colours to gas as the great lifesaver as we transition fro...
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