New Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has nailed his nuclear colours to the mast. He wants South Africa to build a 2,500MW nuclear plant. It won't be easy.

With a bang, new Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has unveiled the key priorities for his department.

Ramokgopa, now in charge of South Africa's energy generation, wants to go big on renewable energy.

It's a major step change considering that his predecessor, Gwede Mantashe, dithered on renewable energy and was a cheerleader for burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil. This all happened while the economy and quality of life were harmed by crippling Stage 6 Eskom blackouts over the past five years.

Under Mantashe, South Africa has only a pitiful 150 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy, such as wind and solar photovoltaic, to show for the past five years under the government's procurement programme. In other words, South Africa, with year-round sunshine, only generated and added to the national grid enough electricity to power about 70,000 homes a day.

Ramokgopa has admitted that the government moved at a glacial pace on renewable energy that could have markedly eased blackout stages. It is now safe to assume that South Africa's electricity crisis is over as the country has been largely free from blackouts for more than 100 days.

Ramokgopa wants to turn the 100 days into 1,000 days...