Hon House Chairperson, it has become something of the norm for the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Mr Gwede Mantashe, to make public statements that have no basis in fact. So ubiquitous has this become that there is even a term for it. It is called "mantashing."
So, it should come as no surprise that he has done it again. Last month the Minister proudly proclaimed the discovery of Hazenile at a Mining Investment Conference in Australia based on an April fool's joke that was clearly marked as satire.
On Friday, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy published under his signature the long awaited Integrated Resources Plan, IRP. Unfortunately they published the wrong one. Yesterday, the Minister could not answer simple questions like when will he open bid window five of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer, REIPP? Why did he not choose the least cost option for the IRP and what will you do if you need to release the strategic fuel reserves?
Instead we got a lot of waffle about me being a lobbyist
- I am not sure what for - and the fact that our strategic fuel reserves comes from Nigeria and Iraq.