Honourable Chairperson
Honourable Minister of Energy, Tina Joemat-Pettersson
Honourable Chairperson of the Energy Portfolio Committee, Fikile Majola Honourable Members of the Executive
Honourable Members of the Energy Portfolio Committee Members of Parliament
Senior officials of the Department of Energy and Government
The Leadership of State Owned Entities
Fellow Compatriots
Good Morning to you all,
Let me begin by paying homage to one of our struggle stalwarts, Mme Ruth Mompati, a veteran of the ANC, the ANC Women's League, MK, Parliament and Government. I stand here today as a proud product of her guidance, her leadership and nurturing. She always led by example. est in peace Mme Ruth, Mme wa sechaba.
I would like to take a moment to once again add my voice to strongly denounce the xenophobic attacks that took place during last month against our brothers and sisters. Those acts do not represent us. We are Africans.
Chairperson
The National Development Plan outlines the need for an energy sector that promotes economic growth and development, promotes social equity through expanded access to energy services, that are sustainable and contribute to the reduction of pollution and mitigation of the effects of global climate changes. The ANC Manifesto identified the access to reliable energy supply in all its forms, as a priority for this administration.
Honourable Members,
In his State of the Nation Address on 12 February 2015 , President Zuma said:
" The country is currently experiencing serious energy constraints which are an impediment to economic growth and is a major inconvenience to everyone in the country. Overcoming the challenge is uppermost in our programme. We are doing everything we can to resolve the energy challenge."
Cabinet moved swiftly and established a War Room, chaired by the Deputy President that oversees implementation of the 5-Point Plan. The Five Point Plan provides a strategy for immediate and short term interventions to manage the electricity supply and demand; and ensure bottlenecks are tackled.
We urge all individuals, households , industries and government buildings to save and use electricity efficiently in order to reduce strain on the grid.
South Africa has enough installed generation capacity for all our needs. However, a sizeable number of Megawatts is currently unavailable due to a variety of factors such as unplanned breakdowns, ageing infrastructure, a poor outage maintenance programme, leading to increased slippages and increasing partial load losses. Eskom is addressing these matters so as to achieve the necessary reserve margins needed to conduct the required maintenance without the need for load shedding.
This approach impacting on the current supply of electricity to various consumers in the short term, but has long term benefits, as it ensures that our plants and generators are properly maintained, predictable and reliable for sustainable power generation.
Honourable members are aware that Eskom currently generates over 95% of our energy, and there can therefore be no solution to our current challenges that does not factor in Eskom. The National Energy Regulator, amongst many other priorities, will also be looking at the determination of the price path from 2016/17 to 2018/19 - a possible MYPD4, that should ideally include a price path for municipalities.
Energy is central to our developmental goal of a better quality of life for all. To those with access to affordable , accessible modern energy, it unlocks access to improved health care and education, improved economic opportunities and better, longer quality of life.
To those who don't, it is a major constraint to their social and economic development and, as we are all painfully aware, women bear the brunt of energy poverty.
We all know that when there's access to electricity particularly in rural areas, as well as modern, efficient, heating, lighting and cooking infrastructure, trees seize to be cut down for cooking; education and health are enhanced, there's access to information using information and communications technology (ICTs) at our fingertips, security is heightened due to better lighting and the possibilities of small enterprise are immediately evident due to possibilities brought about by modern energy.
Honourable Members
R4.2Billion has been appropriated by 2014/15 financial year on the electrification programme, and we are confident towards delivering over 265 000 connections, using both grid and non-grid technologies, within budget cycle by June 2015. The non-grid programme is now also being considered for urban areas of the country with a view of increasing the basic electricity services in informal settlements. The first draft of the electrification master plan will be finalised by September 2015 .
In the past three months, we together with Eskom, we have crisscrossed our country, going to the most remote of areas, to consult our people about their energy needs and its impact on their lives. We have interacted with residents of Goso Forrest and Ntabankulu also in the Eastern Cape, Groot Marice in North West, Phalaborwa in Limpopo, Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga, Ulundi and Mtubatuba in KwaZulu-Natal, Chatty Extentions in Uitenhage ,
Eastern Cape, Mashamba and Mahatlani in Makhado. Our compatriots have reaffirmed their belief in this government , while not hesitating to tell us of short-comings in our service delivery. This is a valuable process as it has enabled us to provide technical and other support to municipalities to ensure seamless service delivery . We remain determined and committed to reach universal access by 2025 for all our people.
Honourable Members
In another community engagement we had with the people of Free State in the Moqhaka Municipality, we experienced first-hand an electricity pilot project generated by fuel cell technology, using platinum. Currently the system is being trialled as a provider of electricity to remote communities where the cost of electrification through an expansion of the national grid may be expensive or technically prohibitive. This project has a potential to contribute meaningfully to our electricity needs, especially since our country has large deposits of Platinum.
We will continue working closely with Science and Technology and other partners and tertiary institutions that are collecting and analysing data from this trial site.
There have already been innovations and improvements to the supply, reliability of power for the people of Moqhaka. In an exciting development , the Science and Technology will be rolling out this technology to another 20,000 schools across the country this financial year. Can you imagine the impact this will have for the learners who will be able to access ICT services. carry out chemical experiments, and access technology?
Honourable members we certainly have a good story to tell.
Nuclear energy plays an important role in the energy security of our country and the Nuclear Energy Company of South Africa plays a pivotal role in the localisation of our nuclear build programme which is in line with our energy policy. South Africa has been utilising nuclear to produce energy for decades, and in fact, our host city Cape Town is basically powered by nuclear energy.
As we celebrate 21 years of democracy, we marked 50 years of SAFARl-1 reactor, which was conceived in the midst of the cold war. In his address during the 50th Anniversary, in Pelindaba, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mr Yukiya Amano, acknowledged that SAFARl-1 is a leading producer of medical isotopes, which are vital for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
He further reported that Nuclear power is the best known peaceful application on nuclear technology. Fellow South Africans, our nuclear technology is being used to save lives across the world, and most recently was used in the fight against Ebola in West Africa, by contributing to cutting the time for diagnosis by 75%!
Honourable Members
It is 20 years since the International Conference for Women , and the Beijing Platform for Women was developed and adopted by all of us. The business case for expanding women's economic opportunities is becoming increasingly evident; this is nothing more than smart economics. To quote a wise elder, the former first President of Zambia, Dr Kenneth Kaunda who said: "to educate a man is to educate an individual, but to educate a woman is to educate a nation."
As part of the Decade for Women as declared by the African Union, we continue to engage among others, organisat ions such as the Women in Oil and Energy of South (WOESA) with the objective of ensuring that there is collaborative effort in transforming the energy sector; with women leading enterprises, and also building capacity of women.
I would like to state that to achieve the energy vision as contained in the National Development Plan, skills development in the energy sector is critical. Given the planned energy infrastructure investments , the country will require a continued sustained and substantial investment in technical skills such as engineers, technicians, artisans and project/programme managers.
Chairperson
The right combination of policies and technologies is strategically important to ensure that the links between economic growth, the increasing energy demand and the associated energy related carbon dioxide emissions is managed as we increase our energy generation capacity. It is thus important that our energy policies address issues of energy access , sustainability, affordability and appropriate quality of service for the end user.
Honourable Chairperson,
It is a daily routine for millions of motorists. You pull into your local fuel station, top up your tank and get back onto the road within a blink of an eye. It happens so effortlessly that motorist seldom give thought to the sophisticated chain that ensures a consistent supply of high quality and reliable petroleum products as overseen by the department. Through the implementation of legislation we ensure that liquid fuels which are the lifeblood of our modern economy are available to motorists in every part of our country. This is vital to
ensuring that our economy continues to be mobile and successfully energised.
In concluding
Together, as Team Energy, we remain committed and determined to:
- Accelerate electrification of households
- Ensure that we address the issue of unfunded posts, and filling of vacant posts, so as to ensure the department is correctly staffed to deliver on this apex priority mandate;
- Ensure that the Strategic plans of our socs are aligned to the objectives of DOE and
have the requisite human and financial resources to meet their objectives.
I support the Budget Vote of the Minister.
On behalf of Team Energy,
Ke A Leboga!
