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20111030

MASSIVE ENERGY SHORTAGES EXPECTED IN S.A.

Big-business angered: : New Medupi coal-fired R150-billion electricity plant suffers ten month-delay, costly accidents, massive cost-overruns, xenophobic labour problems…

ESKOM workers WASTEDFREEFOODPARCELSMedupiPowerStation building site Background on SA’s electricity-generation problems since 1994:

Bomb-threats, strikes against Medupi power station by xenophobic black workers: link

Medupi power station workers throw away food while millions starve link

ANC-regime runs world’s biggest welfare state: link

South Africa scraps safer, cheaper  local pebblebed-nuclear mini-plants in favour of unsafe, French-built water-cooled nuclear plants:  link

Rolling electricity-blackouts at state-owned Eskom utility in South Africa became routine only after 1994:  Wikipedia link

Oct 30 2011 Jan de Lange writes from Johannesburg in the Afrikaans Sake24.com publication that the costly ten-month delay in gettingMedupi power’station’s first unit online,  is causing massive anger in the business community. Enormous energy- and financial problems’ are predicted, he writes.  

MEDUPI POWER STATION BOILER SIX CONSTRUCTION

Ten-month delay in Medupi power-station construction: expected to go online only after the winter of 2013: from September…October:

South Africa’s projected energy-shortages are expected to reach 9-terrawatts/per_hour within the next few months – equal to 1,000 megawatts of energy creation, he noted. These serious energy shortages were expected to be solved when the first of six generators was going to start generating 840-megawatt from December 2012 at the Medupi plant.

However the news-agency Bloomberg was told by ‘high-placed sources’ in SA that there will now be a ten-month delay. They expect it to only go online after the winter of 2013 in September or October. The delays are caused by ‘delays in specialised soldering-work at the Hitachi high-pressure boiler: the most important part of the power station where steam is created to drive the turbines. This problem was originally caused by the fact that the xenophobic  black-South African workers went on strike because Hitachi had to import highly-specialised experts to carry out this work. Thgis is specified on the Hitachi contract with the SA government: the company relies on these extremely skilled specialists to install all its boilers with. The pressure-boilers are connected to 600km-long steel-pipes which feed steam under tremendous pressure and high temperatures to power the turbines. Big companies in South Africa which have been suffering massive losses in production because of the country’s growing energy-crisis, have been watching the progress of Medupi with eagle-eyes: betting their future earning-abilities on being able to get a steadier supply of electricity upon its completion.

De Lange said ‘everybody warned the government (ESKOM) against contracting for the Hitachi-boilers. He spoke to ‘a leading member of the energy-intensive consumer group representing big companies in the country. “Big companies have already paid for this massive investment, by now soaring past R150-billion in the form of huge energy tarrifs, and with the plant now going online ten months later, the financial implications for our companies are enormous,’ the unnamed ‘captain of industry’ told De Lange.

“The political knives are out against Eskom over this matter . Economic growth is the greatest factor to determine whether there will be a repeat of the damage already done to our economy by previous black-outs in 2012 and 2013. Eskom is predicting a growth of 2% during peak-times,  but the drop in economic growth and especially the great many strikes have shown that the peak-use grew only by 1,5% – to 36,543 megawatts up to May 31 this year.”

This also means that Eskom will have to run its diesel-fuelled gas-turbines – usually only online in emergency situations at peak times – will have to be run right through the winter-months, writes De Lange.

“It costs about R200 per magawatt-hours to generate electricity with coal – while the running costs of the gas-turbines is about R2,700 per megawatt-hour. An entire winter of using the diesel-powered gas-turbines thus will chase up Eskom’s running costs by several billion Rands.

De Lange also pointed out that ‘several energy-intensive projects were postponed pending the first-Medupi unit going online in December 2012. “The 4,9-billion Xstrata Lion-Chromium-smelter was postponed for three years, but its construction started a year ago. That smelter was scheduled to start producing in the first quarter of 2013 – but it won’t have the power to do so if Medupi only goes online in October 2013. http://www.sake24.com/Ekonomie/Medupi-kan-probleme-veroorsaak-20111029

Boer-farmers keen to emigrate to Georgia : Germany, US just announced new  investments to expand Georgian agri/vinicultural sector:

Okt 30 2011. Georgia’s new Agriculture Minister Zaza Gorozia has received guidelines from its prime-minister NIka Gilauri to draw more skilled Boer-farmers from South Africa to create a growing agricultural industry. Germany has allocated  €75 million to modernise Georgia. and at least €9 million will be allocated specifically to improve its small-business agricultural sector and expand its wine-exporting abilities.

GEORGIA FARMERS BOER Venter family of Boschfontein Belfast moved to Georgia Feb262011 Rapport GEORGIA’S GAIN – SOUTH AFRICA’S LOSS: The Afrikaner farm-family Venter: after wasting R1million on legal costs trying to stop the ANC-regime from confiscating their farm  Boschfontein near Belfast, the family packed their bags in February 2011: ltr mom Juanita, little Francois and dad Francois. “The people of Georgia immediate let us know that they welcomed us there, ‘ they said.  Picture by Rapport Deon Lamprecht.  From Angola to Georgia: the Boers have always Trekked:

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South Africa’s Transvaal Agricultural Union says the US government has also allocated an extra $20,5-million to Georgia – which according to the South African farmers who have already started farming there since last year, has some of the richest, deepest agricultural soil they’ve come across. South African farmers are used to very poor-agricultural soil, and the Boer families who moved to Georgia last year reportedly are excited about the possibilities of the Georgian soil.  The American money is allocated specifically to improve the food-security of people in small villages, and to improve their water-reticulation systems. “Poverty-alleviation will get specific attention,’ said TLU.

“Georgia’s wine-industry is one of the pillars of their economy and a great deal if investment is going into maintaining and expanding this industry. The previous head of Samtrest, the department dealing with its wine-industry, was fired and replaced with someone who is going to market Georgia’s wines for the export market – and more specifically to Russia and also allowing producers to export their products to Asia. At the moment, Georgian wines are exported to 30 different countries.

http://www.rapport.co.za/Weekliks/Nuus/Ons-pak-nou-ons-tasse-vir-Georgie-20110225

http://www.tlu.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=224:inligtingstoer-na-georgie&catid=36:jongste-nuus

http://www.sake24.com/Maatskappye/Landboubesigheid/Georgie-vry-na-SA-landbouers-20111029

http://protea.bookslive.co.za/blog/2011/03/17/van-afrikaners-in-angola-na-afrikaners-in-georgie-boere-wil-weer-trek/

South African accountants: “weighed down by massive government dept. failures and compliance laws”:

The failure of the SA Revenue Service at ground level… of the Masters’ Office, of CIPRO, of other government departments, means getting the (accountancy) basics done is a mission on its own…’

Oct 30 2011: “SA accountants and auditors have been struggling to keep up. The over-regulation of the profession over the past decade and a bit have led to us being chased from all sides and just keeping up with all the regulation has been a nightmare.

“If the medical profession was subject to the same they would see one patient a week for a cold. In the modern world money and finance are more important to regulators than lives. The lack of skills in this country and emigration have led to most accountants just trying to get the work that is required finished – and there’s no time for a lot of the niceties. The failure of The SA REvenue Service at ground level, CIPRO, Masters’ office and various other Government departments mean that ‘getting the basics done has become a mission on its own,’ writes one accountant. “While we all try and give more value to the client it is not always easy and clients are also loathe to pay for more after they have finished paying for compliance.”

sources:

Foreign workers at Medupi power station run their own face book site: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Medupi-Powerstation-Project/146392948649

ANC regime runs world’s biggest welfare state : Medupi power-station workers throw away food while millions starve:

http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2010/07/anc-runs-worlds-biggest-welfare-state.html

http://www.tlu.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=224:inligtingstoer-na-georgie&catid=36:jongste-nuus

http://www.sake24.com/Ekonomie/Medupi-kan-probleme-veroorsaak-20111029

http://blogs.sake24.com/IgnusKempen/rekenmeesters-het-lui-geword

http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2008/12/south-africa-scraps-nuclear-plant-plans.html

http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2011/06/woman-arrested-medupi-plant-bomb-threat.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_blackout#South_Africa

http://www.sake24.com/Maatskappye/Landboubesigheid/Georgie-vry-na-SA-landbouers-20111029

http://protea.bookslive.co.za/blog/2011/03/17/van-afrikaners-in-angola-na-afrikaners-in-georgie-boere-wil-weer-trek/

http://www.citizen.co.za/citizen/content/en/citizen/business-news?oid=192407&sn=Detail&pid=146848&Complaints-over-SARS%E2%80%99s-failure-to-respond-to-VAT-refund--claims