Fin24 reports that Energy Minister Jeff Radebe has asserted that Independent Power Producers (IPPs) were not the reason for job losses in the coal sector.
Briefing Parliament’s portfolio committee on energy on Tuesday, he spoke about the benefits of the recent signing of the 27 outstanding renewable IPP deals. Radebe said the IPPs would create 58,000 jobs in the communities where the projects were based and that young people would especially benefit from the programme. However, unions have raised concerns that the IPPs would lead to almost 30,000 job losses in the coal sector. Radebe said that perception was wrong. He explained that renewables were established because it was “the right thing to do” to introduce renewables in SA, adding that the real reason for the job losses in the coal sector was that some of the mines had reached the end of their lives.
- Read this report by Lameez Omarjee in full at Fin24
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page