Chaos: truck drivers block major roads in Pretoria

Traffic jams hit highways leading into the City of Tshwane on Wednesday morning as coal trucks blocked routes in protest of renewable energy projects.

Reports emerged on Wednesday morning of massive traffic jams on Gauteng's N1 North, R21 North and the N14 routes leading into Pretoria in Tshwane.

Centurion - N14 North, #TruckDriverProtest through Centurion - LONG QUEUE towards PTA, via @Gee_Motsepe pic.twitter.com/OheJWJsveZ

— Rob Byrne (@TrafficSA) March 1, 2017

Gauteng radio station PowerFM reported that the Coal Transport Forum said that Eskom's agreement with Independent Power Producers (IPPs) will see mining job losses.

As part of diversifying its energy mix, Eskom is expected by government to roll out an IPP programme that allows for the likes solar and wind power to be fed into the national grid.

Just last week, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) said that of Eskom's allowable revenue of R205b, this also includes an amount of R23bn for IPP purchases.

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#TruckProtest Situation on the N1 North approaching Lynnwood #PTATraffic pic.twitter.com/ny4geCOUBJ

— EWN Traffic (@EWNTraffic) March 1, 2017

But the move towards IPPs has seemingly irked the likes of coal transporters, who on Wednesday morning said that they are leading a convoy to the Union Buildings to voice their grievances to President Jacob Zuma, according to PowerFM.

And even Eskom's acting CEO Matshela Koko commented on the matter on Twitter on Wednesday morning.

"We are burning over 3 million tons less coal due to energy surplus, negative energy growth & increasing renewable energy input," tweeted Koko.

"Consequently, @Eskom_SA eskom will not be renewing contracts of coal transporters supplying coal to eskom," he said.

In its Budget Review last week, Treasury said the IPP programme "boosted power generation, attracted R194.1bn in private investment and created thousands of jobs".