Mineral and Energy Affairs Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka told members of Parliament on Tuesday that a new power station will bring about R10-billion into the South African economy.
Speaking in her Budget vote in Parliament on Tuesday, the minister said: ”A process to call for bids to build the new power station has commenced and a tender will be issued by the end of this year, as directed by the president in his State of the Nation Address.”
Noting that transaction advisers had been appointed on the project, the minister said South Africa would be able to achieve universal access to electricity within an eight-year timeframe, as announced by President Thabo Mbeki.
In line with the government’s strategy to reduce the cost of doing business in South Africa, she said her department intended to improve governance of the electricity sector. ”This will be done through creation of a robust electricity regulation regime and by modernising the existing Electricity Act.”
The new legislation would create an enabling environment for new independent power producers and improve governance of the electricity suppliers. ”We are also advanced in the creation of one energy regulator,” she told MPs. – I-Net Bridge