GABARONE (AFP) — Southern African energy ministers held an emergency summit in Botswana on Thursday to grapple with crippling power cuts and shortages that threaten to thwart regional growth prospects.
At the end of the gathering, ministers of the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) agreed that a "radical approach and paradigm shift" was needed to speed up power production.
"The current electricity supply demand balance ... in the SADC region is precarious as evidenced by the recent frequent recurrence of brown-outs, black-outs and load-shedding in virtually all the countries of the SADC mainland, as well as in Madagascar," said SADC executive secretary Tomaz Salomao.
A project to link Angola, Malawi and Tanzania in the southern African power pool specifically needed to be fast-tracked, he told journalists after the meeting in the capital Gaborone.
The ministers appointed a task team comprising Angola, the DRC, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique and hosts Botswana, to look into such issues as financing, resource allocation and investment blockages impeding the expansion of regional power projects.
"I have no doubt that the task force ... can rise to the occasion, especially as we seek to host the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa, the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, and the 2011 All Africa Games in Zambia," said Salomao.
He said the region required five billion US dollars (3.4 billion euros) for short-term projects to be completed by 2010, and another 24 billion dollars for projects with a 2025 cut-off date.
A number of events has caused serious power outages across the region since January, including problems with quality coal delivery to power stations in South Africa.
Higher than expected economic growth spiked electricity demand, and inclement weather in Mozambique and Zimbabwe has damaged the grid transporting power between countries.
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