• The CSIR is a multidisciplinary research organisation that focuses on national priorities. It is a national government business entity that, amongst others, undertakes research and development to improve the lives of South Africans as stipulated in its mandate.
• The organisation conducts independent research in order to equip businesses and decision-makers with information to enable them to make evidence-based decisions supported by sound research.
• It is against this background that the CSIR strongly rejects the allegation that Eskom has tried to suppress the work done by this organisation in response to the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP).
• To the contrary, the CSIR did participate and make inputs during the Department of Energy’s (DoE) public consultation on the Integrated Energy Plan (IEP) and the IRP.
• Furthermore, the CSIR formally submitted documents to the DoE and these documents are publicly available and can be downloaded from our website: https://www.csir.co.za/csir-energy-centre.
• It is therefore not true that the CSIR Energy Centre has been prevented from publishing its research. The organisation will not comment any further on the submission made to the DoE since the CSIR submission is already public information as indicated above. This will also allow the DoE to conclude its internal processes towards the finalisation of the IRP.
• The Energy Centre has all the channels that other units and centres in the organisation have to publish their work through peer-reviewed scholarly journals and conferences.
• We can also confirm that the CSIR did NOT receive any payments from Eskom in order to stop any research that we are conducting.
• The CSIR has, over many years, collaborated with Eskom in the following areas: Industry (advanced manufacturing); Health; Energy; Defence and security; Built environment; Digital environment​.

For more information, please contact:

Tendani Tsedu

Group Manager: Strategic Communication and Stakeholder Relations

Tel: 012 841 3417

Cell: 082 945 1980

E-mail: mtsedu@csir.co.za