Remarks by Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, Minister of Electricity and Energy, Department Budget Vote Address – Electricity and Energy | Vote 10
Honourable Speaker of the National Assembly
Fellow Ministers, Deputy Ministers
The Deputy Minister of Electricity and Energy, Hon Samantha Graham Maré
Leaders of the Opposition
Chairperson and Members of the Portfolio Committee on Electricity and Energy
Distinguished Guests and Partners
People of the Republic of South Africa,
In his seminal critique of global inequality, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, the African intellectual and freedom fighter Walter Rodney wrote, “Development is a process of self-reliance, of drawing upon the resources of the people and mobilising them for their own benefit.”
For millions of South Africans, the promise of democracy remains incomplete when homes are without power, hospitals face blackouts, and businesses operate under the shadow of uncertainty. Energy is not simply a technical input. It is about human dignity. It is about enabling children to study at night, clinics to preserve vaccines, and factories to power the jobs we so urgently need.
It is within this context that the Department of Electricity and Energy was established. Not as a bureaucratic reshuffle, but as a strategic intervention to restore public confidence, drive delivery, and reassert the role of the democratic state as a developmental force. This Budget Vote marks a turning point. It is not merely about expenditure. It is about direction. It is about renewal. And most of all, it is about delivery.
At the time of our formation, the Country was experiencing the most severe energy crisis in its democratic history. Loadshedding had become a daily feature of life. Growth was stalling, investor confidence was weakening, and the reliability of the state itself was under question.
Yet even under these conditions, we resisted despair. Guided by the Energy Action Plan, supported by Eskom, the private sector, and social partners, and strengthened by the formation of the National Energy Crisis Committee, the country rallied. Structural loadshedding has effectively been eradicated and occurrences of loadshedding are now sparsely intermittent. In the year ending April 2025, annualised EAF bridged the 60% mark. Eskom is now gearing to improve EAF to above 70% by the end of the current financial year.
It is this progress that we seek to consolidate in the 2025/2026 financial year. However, this Budget Vote is not just about resolving a crisis. It is about reshaping the future. Our long-term task is not only to stabilise the system, but to reform its structure. We must build an electricity sector that is affordable, democratic, and rooted in the needs of our People. That means expanding access, lowering prices over time, and using energy infrastructure to drive industrialisation, job creation and economic inclusion.
This is not an abstract policy ambition. It is the very foundation of a developmental state. Energy is not a commodity to be traded without consequence. It is a public good. It is a platform for dignity, for education, for health, for enterprise, and for full economic citizenship.
As we present this Budget Vote, we do so with clarity about our mission and humility about the scale of the work ahead. Our programme is organised around five strategic priorities, as set out in the Department’s 2025 to 2030 Strategic Plan:
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Achieve Universal Access; Availability, Affordable and Quality Energy
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Attain sovereign and regional energy security
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Drive industrialisation and lead innovation
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Qualitatively transform energy demographics
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Assert SA, Continental and global energy leadership
This Budget is therefore both a statement of intent and a plan for delivery. We will therefore, in presenting this inaugural budget address, outline the progress we have made, the interventions planned for the year ahead, and how we intend to work with partners across the state, private sector and communities to achieve our shared goals.
Achieve Universal Access; Availability, Affordability and Quality Energy
Honourable Members
Since 1994, South Africa has made extraordinary progress in redressing energy poverty through one of the most extensive electrification programmes in the Global South. Over 8.4 million new household connections have been delivered, expanding electricity access from just over 36 percent in 1994 to more than 94 percent by 2024. This achievement reflects the State’s commitment to universalising access as a core component of post-apartheid reconstruction and development. However, the momentum of recent years has slowed.
Unelectrified households, particularly in informal settlements, peri-urban areas, deep rural area and newly formed housing developments, now account for 1.6 million households, demanding a renewed and accelerated national effort. The Department has therefore undertaken a review of the current electrification approach and initiated a comprehensive Universal Access Strategy. This intervention aims to expand beyond its historic grid-centric model and adopt a coordinated, technology-neutral framework that accelerates access delivery, integrates grid and non-grid solutions, and institutionalises implementation partnerships across all three spheres of government.
The revised strategy is structured around three critical reforms:
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Reconfiguration of the Delivery Model to consolidate all access programmes under one hybrid planning and funding framework, including the review of the current INEP grant; towards a universal access grant.
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Infrastructure Modernisation, with targeted investment in overloaded or under-capacitated networks to accommodate new connections and load growth.
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Innovation and Off-grid Integration, scaling micro-grids and decentralised energy and smart grid systems for deep rural, peri-urban and informal areas.
The Universal Access Strategy reframes electrification as a developmental and rights-based obligation, rather than a legacy infrastructure backlog. By aligning spatial planning, funding reform, and capacity building into a single programme, the Department aims not only to close the access gap by 2030, but to embed energy access into a broader framework of inclusive growth, social equity and infrastructure-led transformation.
Over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, government has committed just over R13 billion to the Integrated National Electrification Programme. This allocation is more than a funding line. It is a baseline commitment to end energy poverty, and a platform to reconfigure how we deliver on the promise of universal access by 2030.
The scale of the financial requirement to achieve universal access by 2030 exceeds what the fiscus alone can carry. The Department is therefore working with National Treasury and our development finance partners to design a new blended financing approach. The goal is to use the R13 billion allocation to unlock additional capital through the debt markets and concessional funding windows. By using public funds to de-risk private investment, we are creating an infrastructure finance facility that will allow us to front-load the capital needed to accelerate roll-out.
To ensure that access is not only achieved but affordable, the Department has also initiated a comprehensive review of the Energy Pricing Policy. This review is central to addressing affordability constraints, particularly for indigent communities that remain energy poor despite formal connections. The revised framework will propose a differentiated pricing structure that protects vulnerable households, while also supporting large power users with internationally competitive tariffs for electricity-intensive, locally beneficiated exports.
Independent Power Producers and the Procurement Pipeline
The Independent Power Producer Office, working with the Department, has now enabled over 2,030 MW of capacity currently under construction, and a further 2,991 MW in advanced stages of financial close. More than 7,700 MW has already been connected to the grid since the inception of the Independent Power Producer Programme (IPP)
In the year ahead, new rounds under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, the Battery Energy Storage Programme, and the Gas-to-Power programme will be issued. These will incorporate stronger localisation obligations, clearer project timelines and enhanced oversight mechanisms to ensure implementation discipline.
Securing Gas Supply and Mitigating the Impending Cliff
Honourable Members
South Africa is approaching what analysts have termed a gas cliff, a structural supply shortfall arising from the imminent depletion of domestic gas reserves, declining imports via the Rompco pipeline from Pande/Temane Fields in Mozambique to Secunda in Mpumalanga, and delayed infrastructure investments. Without urgent intervention, this cliff will undermine industrial continuity, threaten baseload capacity, and stall progress on our energy transition.
Gas is not a luxury in our context. It is a critical enabler of power system flexibility, a baseload substitute in select industrial applications, and a critical feedstock to produce fertiliser, hydrogen and other value-added chemicals. While we continue to expand renewable generation, we must also recognise that a reliable, dispatchable baseload will remain essential for a functioning power system.
I thank you.
#ServiceDeliveryZA
