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- Kgosientso Ramokgopa says the Lethabo power station was the first one he visited last week that was performing well.
- He said load shedding would not be ended through an "act of God", but by getting the units back online.
- This year kicked off with South Africans suffering through the most devastating bouts of load shedding.
Newly appointed Electricity Minister Kgosientso Ramokgopa visited the Lethabo Power Station in the Free State last week.
He said Lethabo had been the first power station he visited last week that was performing well.
During his visit, Ramokgopa said he was optimistic that load shedding would end, Africa News reported.
"Load shedding will not be ended through an act of God. So Easter is coming, irrespective of the amount of prayer that we put in, it won't resolve load shedding. Load shedding will be resolved by getting the units back online. Load shedding will be resolved by ensuring that we are able to improve the operational efficiency of these units."
READ | Load shedding: Here are your options and what they will cost
The power problem is taking a huge chunk out South Africa's GDP.
"Unserviced electricity in this country is costing the South African economy R500 billion per annum. We also know from Stats SA that the GDP contraction as a result of load shedding is about 2.1 percentage points. We got statistics just the other day that the South African economy has contracted by 1.3% on the back of load shedding," Ramokgopa added.
The power crisis started 15 years ago, but this year kicked off with South Africans suffering through the most devastating bouts of load shedding that have led to the loss of millions of rands in business revenue across all sectors.
