Minister of Energy
Honourable Dipuo Peters
Honourable MECs, Mayors and Councillors
Representatives of various State Owned Entities
Esteemed traditional leaders
Members of the Community of eNgcobo
Distinguished guests
It is a great pleasure for me to be spending this day with you, the community of eNgcobo.
Today marks one of the most memorable days in this area of eNgcobo, as we are here to launch one of the projects that are improving the quality of life of our people.
South Africa was one of the first countries in the world to use electricity commercially.
The diamond mining in Kimberly led to electricity streetlights being switched on for the first time in 1882; exactly three years after New York first received its electricity supply.
In Kimberley they had their electricity even before London had electric street lights.
However, because of the colonial and apartheid legacy it has taken the people eNgcobo 129 years before they can also enjoy having electricity. When we talk about apartheid legacy we refer to such things and the fact that such a legacy cannot be overturned only in 17 years.
As the government of the Republic of South Africa we made a commitment that we will ensure that all our communities, households, clinics and schools will have electricity by the year 2014.
We are still on track to meet our targets by 2014; we are even more determined to achieve this objective. Today’s launch serves as confirmation that we are indeed moving towards honouring this commitment.
Engcobo is one of the areas that played a significant role in the liberation of South Africa and has given birth to a number of struggle heroes such as ANC leaders, Dr AB Xuma, James Calata and Walter Sisulu.
In almost all of the surrounding towns and rural areas around here, you can find traces of local heroes and heroines who made the ultimate sacrifice in the fight for freedom like the great Mtiraras and others.
It is also in this beautiful province of Eastern Cape where our President Nelson Mandela was also born.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We are here in a celebratory mood given the progress we are making in service delivery, especially in electricity provision.
One of the challenges in electrification projects over the last few years was that only municipalities which are licensed to distribute electricity were allocated electrification funding.
In order to increase the roll-out process the Department of Energy initiated the ‘turnkey” projects with the municipalities that are not licensed.
The “turnkey” approach is a recommended alternative to in-house electrification done by the municipalities or Eskom in the light of the pressures and limitations that these entities have.
The electrification programme is currently faced with huge backlogs.
Furthermore, most of the municipalities which are not licensed are in rural areas and are often faced with a challenge of shortage of skills, especially technical skills, human resources, and limited time to manage electrification projects.
In light of the issues mentioned, “turnkey” projects provide a solution to fast-tracking service delivery, and producing a good quality product that is produced by qualified and experienced experts in the field, while knowledge transfer is taking place in the municipality.
In a “turnkey” approach, consulting agencies are commissioned by the municipality to undertake the responsibilities for everything necessary and required for design, construction, completion and hand over of the project once it is completed.
The Department of Energy renders assistance on a continuous basis to the Municipality throughout the project’s lifespan.
The eNgcobo Municipality electrification project is the largest such “turnkey” project undertaken in the country.
The first phase of the eNgcobo electrification project cost one hundred and ten million rand. Close to six thousand connections have been completed.
The bulk infrastructure was installed to support the connections made, as well as to ensure capacity to electrify more households in the future.
The Hlobo Sub-station forms part of this infrastructure that was established to ensure that these houses and many more houses in future can be electrified, such as the village of Ntlalukana.
In the next two years, an additional amount of one hundred million rand has been allocated to complete the outstanding five thousand eight hundred and seventy five connections.
The success of this “turnkey” project indicated to government that large infrastructure projects can successfully be implemented by rural based municipalities, if good cooperation exists between all three spheres of government.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Electricity is very important in our daily modern economic life and development. It is important for the improvement of the quality of life of poor people. We will therefore continue with our electrification programme nationally.
We have prioritised the least electrified provinces of KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape, focusing specifically on building the network capacity to support additional connections.
Ladies and gentlemen,
On 18 May, you will have another opportunity of exercising your democratic right by voting for your local leaders who will be entrusted with the responsibility of delivering services to you.
We urge all of you to come out in great numbers to vote on the 18th.
Coincidentally one of the key heroes of our liberation struggle, Mr Walter Sisulu, uXhamela, was born on 18 May 1912, in the village of Equtubeni here in eNgcobo.
He was one of the greatest leaders to come out of our struggle.
He sacrificed most of his adult life at the service of the people of South Africa. We will be thinking of him and celebrating his birthday when we vote on the 18th.
Let us use this hard won right and elect candidates who will work with us to take the transformation of our communities forward.
I thank you.
Source: The Presidency
