Perhaps the sparks won’t fly

Iwas out for a run with a friend of mine and he produced a ridiculous statement: “I’m all in favour of load-shedding.” How could he say that? Had he been living in South Africa where sometimes people have electricity for barely 20 per cent of the day and night; with a degree of compensation from massively reduced electricity bills? Load-shedding was the cause; implemented by Eskom because the system couldn’t meet peak demand in that country.

‘Yes,’ he said; “I’m on a plan to lose weight.” Chuckle, chuckle. But it sparked (pun intended) a few thoughts about whether it’s realistic to visualise a time when the sparks no longer fly for 24 hours a day in Eswatini. When load-shedding also becomes the norm for us. Surely not!

Let’s get straight to the point. We need a statement from the relevant authorities in government and the parastatal sector, updating us on whether or not Eswatini will be self-sufficient in energy supply to the population at the end of 2025; we want to hear ‘yes’, and not ‘maybe’ or even ‘don’t know’.

Why that date? Because that’s when this country’s agreement with South Africa comes to an end. Eswatini, dependent on South Africa and Mozambique (the latter supplying a small portion) for nearly 80 per cent of its electricity, has received a full supply of electricity while most South Africans have had to tolerate substantial load-shedding.

That was not popular over the border. Eskom won’t make the same mistake again of committing themselves to exporting energy to Eswatini regardless of the supply situation. In other words, on January 1, 2026, less than three years’ time, we’ll be back in the real world, needing to be self-sufficient in electricity generation.

So where are we? Around two years ago we were informed, through the media by the relevant authorities, that we would be energy self-sufficient by December 2025. But at that time the planned E12 billion thermal plant at Lubhuku, Malindzi was reportedly ready for construction. The feasibility study had been completed. Far too late of course.

We’ve had the resources for the production of thermal energy throughout the past few decades. But those years are littered with the many missed opportunities by government. The circumstances surrounding the issue of exploration and mining licences were never publicly understood; we became the land of wasted opportunity with perfectly reputable investors leaving for other options, through dissatisfaction with the terms of a deal or simply fed up waiting for decisions. Well that’s water under the bridge and this is electricity through the cables.

Strategy

Our broad strategy was understood to be maximising the provision of energy from renewable sources – exactly the right approach – with the thermal supply underpinning that output and covering shortages, plus the real possibility of significant exports to nearby countries.

But now, in the prime minister’s statement of last week, we are told that government can’t realistically expect finance for the thermal energy project in this day and age of green energy supply. Does that mean the thermal project is shelved?

That appears to be a tame surrender without even a fight to precede it. The world desperately needs countries to maximise their production of renewable energy but it doesn’t expect any to sustain a massive drop in living standards through the exclusion of thermal energy production. What’s good for India and China is good for us.

I’m not in a position to operate like an employed journalist, pursuing interviews and data to get the full story for a report. I’m the person on the street; in legal terms the ‘innocent bystander.’ I’m talking like that individual; anxious to know the position.

Not least, to know whether or not I have to prepare myself for a life of cold showers in the morning, losing food in the freezer, reading by candlelight and cooking over a wood fire. Because that’s the very real risk for many in Eswatini if we’re not self-sufficient by December 2025.

And it’s not just the person-in-the-street who wants to know. Every existing investor needs to know it. And we won’t get much more than a few cents of new foreign direct investment unless we can assure the private sector of continuity in electricity supply.

Botswana has recently strengthened its own thermal energy generation. The due diligence work by potential foreign investors prioritises consistent energy supply. Without a guarantee of that status, those investors will just land at Gaborone and forget about us. And if we fail to supply electricity to our people the sparks may fly in a different manner.

We might have a major crisis looming. That’s why we need an unequivocal statement regarding the degree of guaranteed percentage of energy self-sufficiency at December 31, 2025. In the meantime, how resourceful are our strategies to strengthen our programme of implementing renewable energy?

What financing options and tax incentives are there for big companies and individuals to buy or even lease (as in South Africa) solar panels. Those initiatives tick the boxes: clean energy and lower demand for State-provided power.