Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme was halted from 2015 to 2019, and then the energy minister chased a nuclear red herring.

A halted renewable energy programme, the pursuit of nuclear, and an enlarged appetite for coal are among some of the reasons South Africa's Independent Power Producers (IPPs) have been delayed in coming online, resulting in elongated bouts of national rolling blackouts.

In 2011 (four years after the the first encounter of load shedding), the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPP) was introduced as a means for the country to diversify its energy mix, fulfil the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), as well as attract investment from the private sector to introduce renewable energy to the grid, while increasing its capacity.

To date, renewables (most of which built under the REIPPP) make up about 10% of the country's electricity capacity, at about 6,200 megawatts out of a total of about 58 gigawatts of installed capacity in the country.

But there's a difference between capacity and energy - as many coal lobbyists say.

Capacity is the maximum output an electricity generator can physically produce, whereas energy is the electricity that is actually being produced from the generator over...