South Africa cannot afford further delays in restructuring electricity distribution, Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica said on Tuesday.
”I therefore urge all stakeholders to unite in purpose and action to ensure that this process is given the necessary impetus it needs,” she told a media briefing in Sandton.
In particular, the minister called on municipalities and Eskom to work even more closely with government agency Electricity Distribution Industry (EDI) Holdings in ensuring the establishment of Regional Electricity Distributors (Reds) ”sooner rather than later”.
The Reds were to be established as public entities under the auspices of EDI Holdings and would take over power distribution from municipalities.
”The delay in EDI restructuring has been too costly to the country and economy,” the minister said.
She added that the estimates were that the continued fragmentation, poor investment in infrastructure, loss of skills and the unequal treatment of customers was costing the country about R2-billion per year.
”The greatest concern for me is the backlog in infrastructure investment, which stands at approximately R27-billion,” Sonjica said.
There was no doubt significant strides had been made over the last 15 years, she said, adding that currently, no less than eight million households had access to electricity.
As part of government’s commitment to the millennium development goals, the target was to ensure universal access to electricity by 2012.
Introducing the new chairperson of EDI Holdings, Duma Nkosi, to the briefing, she said she was ”heartened” that there was yet another ”stalwart” in the energy sector.
The minister urged Nkosi to call on all South Africans to be energy efficient.
”The fact that we have thus far been able to avoid another round of load-shedding should not make us complacent.”
Nkosi told the briefing he was under no illusion whatsoever as to the enormity of the task at hand.
His stints in Parliament as chairperson of the portfolio committee on minerals and energy, executive mayor of the Ekurhuleni municipality, as well as Gauteng provincial chair and national executive member of the South African Local Government Association, had exposed him to challenges facing the electricity industry in general and the electricity distribution industry in particular.
The government saw the current fragmentation of the electricity distribution industry as a threat to social and economic development.
It therefore intended restructuring electricity distribution via six Reds.
All those currently employed by Eskom distribution and distributing municipalities would be transferred to the Reds. They would operate as independent businesses on a sustainable, financially viable basis. — Sapa