Cape Town suing energy minister

[caption id="attachment_202729" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Energy Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi
File picture: Trevor Samson / Business Day[/caption]

The City of Cape Town has taken Energy Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi to court to force her to give it permission to buy renewable energy.

This comes after a three-year-long running battle between the city and Kubayi’s office over the matter.

The city has set a target to source at least 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

However the city can’t buy the energy directly from producers unless there is a prior determination by the minister and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa. City mayor Patricia de Lille told a full council meeting on Thursday that they have served Kubayi with the papers.

“Recently the minister informed the City of Cape Town that she has placed a hold on all new determinations‚” said De Lille.

“The hold is [about] nothing else — [she] wants to force all of us to continue to buy electricity from a corrupt Eskom.”

De Lille said the city was determined to purchase from independent power producers to mitigate against Eskom’s huge price increases.

“The majority of Eskom’s electricity supply is also generated by dirty fossil fuels‚ contributing immensely to the global climate change crisis‚” she said.

De Lille said the city is so serious about its climate change goals that it has instructed its investors not to invest its money in fuel-related companies.

“We want our investments to be aligned with our principles of resilience and sustainability‚” she added.

- TimesLIVE