President Cyril Ramaphosa is facing a legal challenge over his failure to implement legislation directing energy planning.
Two civil society organisations have initiated legal action against him to bring section 6 of the National Energy Act into operation, and for the minister of mineral resources & energy to develop an integrated energy plan in terms of that law.
The organisations said while there is a strong call to sue the government and Eskom for load-shedding, they are “going straight to the source” in a bid to hold Ramaphosa to account for not bringing this “critical piece” of legislation into operation.
As SA continues to bear the burden of severe load-shedding, the country is looking to Ramaphosa to do what needs to be done to find lasting solutions to the electricity supply crisis which started in 2008.
Eskom, the national energy regulator of SA and minister of public enterprises Pravin Gordhan also face multiple court challenges from opposition parties, organised labour and business owners that have turned to the courts to launch legal action to demand clear and transparent plans to end to load-shedding, a freeze on the implementation of an 18.65% increase in electricity tariffs, and greater transparency in the approvals processes for new renewable energy projects.
No option
Kholwani Simelane of The Green Connection, which initiated the legal action along with the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute, said that Section 6 of the Act requires the minerals and energy minister to develop and then, on an annual basis, review and publish the integrated energy plan.
“How can we even try to solve this problem of energy supply, including providing electricity to the people of this country, people who have no other option but to rely on what government supplies, without a plan that has been developed in terms of energy legislation?” Simelane asked.
The court papers were issued from the Western Cape High Court on Monday and were served on the president and minister of energy Gwede Mantashe. They are required to provide within 15 days a record detailing why Section 6 has not yet been brought into operation.
On Monday, Ramaphosa and the national energy crisis committee met organised business and labour to provide an update on what progress government has made in implementing solutions to the energy crisis that were announced by the president in July last year.
The “action plan to end load-shedding” included an immediate focus on fixing Eskom and improving the performance of the existing fleet of power stations. However, since then, Eskom’s plant performance has only deteriorated. The plan also contained interventions to speed up private energy generation and increase the state’s procurement of renewable energy from private producers.
Roger Baxter, CEO of the Minerals Council of SA, who was in the meeting with Ramaphosa, said while he could not divulge any details of the discussions between business and presidency, the energy response plan announced by Ramaphosa in June is “still the plan on the table”. Talks were now on implementing the interventions.
It was a “constructive conversation” and there was recognition that the energy supply crisis would not be solved overnight, Baxter said.
Business, represented by Business Unity SA, Business Leadership SA, the Minerals Council and the SA Energy Council were doing their part by driving investment into new renewable projects, not just to power their own industries, but to also supplement national power supply, he said.
‘Twiddling thumbs’
Busisiwe Mavuso, CEO of Business Leadership SA, who was also in the meeting with Ramaphosa on Monday, said the purpose of the meeting was not to introduce any new plans to end load-shedding but rather to illustrate to business leaders that progress was being made on existing plans and that government was not “sitting around twiddling their thumbs”.
Mavuso said that the focus now needed to shift from planning to implementation and added that the national energy crisis committee had to start communicating its plans and progress to the public who are suffering.
It has been almost seven months since the plan was presented by Ramaphosa and at the least SA needed to know whether “clear timelines and concrete targets” have been set to achieve the initiatives set out in the plan, Mavuso said.
On Tuesday minister in the presidency, Mondli Gungubele, issued a statement appealing for calm, saying that the government acknowledges the frustration of South Africans with poor service delivery which had led to sporadic protests that occurred in parts of the country.
The Azanian People’s Organisation staged a sit-in at the national energy regulator’s offices in Pretoria on Tuesday to protest against the latest Eskom tariff increase. Earlier this week in Parys residents torched parts of a local municipal building and the home of the mayor’s mother as they continued to protest over the lack of water in the area.
“Government is alive to the issues related to the delivery of basic services, and calls for concerns to be raised in a peaceful and legitimate platform,” Gungubele said.
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