Johannesburg - France will send a team of engineers to South Africa over the coming week to help it resolve a crippling energy crisis, South African President Thabo Mbeki and visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in Cape Town Thursday. The announcement followed the signing of a 1.4-billion-euro deal between state electricity supplier Eskom and French company Alstom, which has been chosen to supply turbines for a new coal-fired power station in Mpumalanga province.
Addressing a joint press conference following around an hour of bilateral talks Mbeki said: "I raised with the president (Sarkozy) the need for us to get some people, some engineers to help us on an urgent basis to deal with this matter (the energy crisis)."
"The president immediately agreed. In a few days all of those engineers will be here," Mbeki added.
Sarkozy said the aid was "totally irrespective" of French nuclear giant Areva's bid to build a nuclear power plant in South Africa.
Areva, which built South Africa's first nuclear plant at Koeberg near Cape Town, is competing with US firm Westinghouse-Electric to build a second 120-billion-rand (15.8 billion dollar) station with twice the output.
Apart from energy Sarkozy and Mbeki also discussed crises on the African continent, including Darfur.
Sarkozy also announced France and South Africa had been invited by Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir to send a joint delegation to the country "in the coming days" for talks on resolving the crisis in Darfur.
"I was glad to accept," he said.
