The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and its affiliate the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa on Wednesday expressed their opposition to what they see as the liberalisation of the liquid fuels industry through legislation currently before Parliament.
But the two union groups welcomed the prohibition of self-service retail outlets “thereby helping to protect the petrol pump jobs”.
In a submission to the National Assembly minerals and energy portfolio committee, Sidney Kgara, deputy head of Cosatu’s parliamentary office, said the Minerals and Energy Department’s proposed amendments to the Petroleum Products Act of 1977 — contained in the Petroleum Products Amendment Bill — “represent an intermediate stage in the managed liberalisation process intended to
eventually diminish the State’s role in this strategic sector”.
It argues that in terms of government’s long-term plan to restructure the liquid fuel industry, it plans to deregulate and make the industry internationally competitive and lean towards commercially based retail pricing without inter-fuel and rural-urban cross subsidies.
It says that the Bill’s provisions provide for this change. In terms of the Bill there is a licensing system to be regulated by the controller of petroleum products “geared at ensuring countrywide availability of petroleum products at competitive prices”.
“This means that without subsidies the introduction of transparent cost-reflective pricing would be prohibitively expensive for the poor — in particular those in the interior and far-flung rural regions”.
The two union groups welcomed the prohibition of vertical integration in the petroleum industry as a way of promoting small business in the retail sector and the extension of the energy minister’s power to determine the price of petroleum products.
They also welcomed the provision of powers to the minister to introduce regulations prescribing measures to be taken regarding energy-related environmental and health impacts. – I-Net Bridge