Neighbours give South Africa electricity for 2010 WC


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Southern African countries have signed a deal to put in place an emergency supply of thousands of megawatts of electricity to South Africa during the hosting of 2010 World Cup.

Zambia, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are among the 12 countries that will sign an undertaking to support an emergency plan for the tournament.

Lawrence Musaba of the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) is quoted saying SAPP members will make 2 000MW to 3 000MW of “emergency power” available during the World Cup.

South Africa has of late experienced power cuts as there was little energy generation.

The Koeberg power station generates about 1 800MW.

The only SAPP members that currently have the capacity to export electricity are Zambia, Mozambique and the DRC. Botswana, Swaziland and Namibia all import power from, inter alia, South Africa.

On Tuesday this week the World Bank announced a new investment of $570m into the SAPP after years of insufficient investment in the region.

This follows promises on Monday for some $1.3bn for maintenance and renovation of infrastructure in eight countries along the corridor stretching from South Africa in the south to Kenya on the horn of Africa.

According to Musaba, more than $100bn is required to increase power-generation capacities in the 12 member states to 100 000MW – apart from the investments that Eskom has already announced in South Africa.

Eskom generates about 36 000MW of the 46 500MW available in the region
this year.

2010 World Cup  South Africa's preparation to host the games on African soil for the first time but also individual African countries' determination to take part in the historic event. Five African countries - Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, South Africa and Ghana - are selected to join twenty seven teams from around the world to battle it out on the football pitch for the gold trophy. One by one, the African teams are eliminated, but Africans will not be bogged down as they rally behind their compatriots on the wings of the vuvuzela, a far cry from the near diplomatic row between Algeria and Egypt during the qualifiers. Ghana are the last team to leave but not before African unity becomes reality...
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