Paper short abstract:

Regional cooperation is one way to overcome South Africa’s electricity shortage. I use interviews and official documents in order to reveal the “cognitive schemes” of decision takers from the government and the national electricity supplier. They explain how energy policy comes into existence.

Paper long abstract:

In January 2008, South Africa's national electricity supplier Eskom had to ask its largest customers to reduce their use of electricity temporarily to minimum levels. Meeting the government's GDP growth targets will require 47,000 megawatts of additional capacity within the next twenty years, which is impressive considering that the current demand is 36,000 megawatts. This situation is worsened by the fact that Africa's economic powerhouse lacks sources of energy other than coal.

At the same time, the neighbouring countries possess vast potentials for generating electricity. Giant hydropower stations are envisaged in the DRC. Gas has been found along the coasts of Mozambique, Namibia and Tanzania. Regional cooperation on electricity, moreover, fits into South Africa's cooperative foreign policy. The Southern African Power Pool constitutes an according institutional frame. However, regional cooperation is not the only option. Shale gas may be exploited in the Karoo. It promises energy autarky; so does nuclear power, which is to be expanded significantly according to present build-up plans.

In this paper, I reveal "cognitive schemes" of decision takers from Eskom and the government, which explain how their strategies on electricity come into existence. Cognitive schemes show how someone structures a specific issue, how he/she identifies obstacles and opportunities, and links them to agendas, which then guide his/her action. Interviews with officials from Eskom and the government as well as documents published by them are examined for this purpose.