US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo attributed the failure to fix South Africa’s power-supply crisis to a lack of political will. Adeyemo urged the country to expand its transmission network and look beyond coal to generate electricity. South Africans have been subjected to power outages for years, some lasting more than 10 hours a day, due to a reliance on aging and ill-maintained coal-fired power plants.
The US Treasury has expressed its frustration that South Africa has so far not taken up $2.5 billion in cheap loans through the pact to allow its power grid to accommodate more energy from solar and wind plants. The so-called Just Energy Transition Partnership has been opposed by South African coal miner unions and some politicians.