Pretoria - Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has announced a further guarantee of R174 billion to allow Eskom to complete the construction of the Medupi Power Station in Limpopo and the Kusile plant in Mpumalanga.
Addressing Parliaments Portfolio Committee on Finance, Gordhan said this would bring the total guarantee by government to R350 billion.
He said this would enable Eskom to continue with it build programme and give the appropriate assurance that government was standing by Eskom.
Medupi is expected to be up and running by the end of 2012, while operations at Kusile may follow four years later.
President Jacob Zuma said on Sunday at the re-opening of the Camden power station in Mpumalanga that government was to spend over R800 billion on energy infrastructure over the next few years.
Zuma said government was looking for funding solutions for Kusile power station and that part of the R800 billion covers Eskom's R385 billion for expansion. It is estimated that electricity demand is set to double in the next 20 years, hence the move to bring back out-of-commission power stations.
