News24.com | Mmusi Maimane | Five steps to quickly solve SA’s energy crisis

People in Soweto continue with their lives even though load shedding seems to be here to stay on September 21, 2022.

Now is not the time to spectate and wallow in despair over load shedding. It is the time to turn our anger into activism, writes Mmusi Maimane.

South Africa has been thrust back into a national disaster - birthed and sustained by government. We all know this. And we all know how abnormal it is.

It is not normal for people to have to throw out rotten food from their fridges every day. Nor is it normal for small business to shut their doors forever, or for chicken farmers to bury dead chickens in their thousands. It is not normal for families to light their homes with an assortment of power banks, inverters, and torches. It is not normal for people to have to check a cellphone app every hour to see when, or whether, they will have power that day. It is not normal for hospitals, schools and other critical services to be permanently distracted and dictated to by a predictably unpredictable electricity supply. 

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There exists a moment right now where this malaise is causing the temperature of the national mood to rise. Pickets, protests, boycotts, and strikes are gathering collective momentum against government’s slow, lethargic response to the crisis at hand. BOSA has joined up with several national leaders and their entities to pursue this matter in the courts. 

Litigation 

BOSA has served papers on the President, Eskom, Nersa, the Ministers and DGs of the Departments of Public Enterprises and DRME and will appear in the Gauteng High Court on 28 February 2023.

We, and our partners in civil society seek a legal judgment that will put an end to load shedding, electricity shortages and exorbitant tariff increases. 

Do not dismiss these collective actions. They serve to create an atmosphere in which government can be forced to act immediately. This is vital to both the immediate steps to keep the lights on, and the medium to long-term policy steps to overhaul the energy sector in South Africa. 

I wish to focus on the immediate steps. While South Africans always want to believe that a fundamental shift is on the horizon, they desperately require a change in circumstances now. Today. And so does the economy. For our county to grow, thrive and create new jobs, investment is needed. And no person, nor company, will invest in a nation that is not energy secure. 

Here are five steps to quickly solve SA's energy crisis.

• For the South African Revenue Service (SARS) to immediately give Eskom full fuel rebates for diesel to allow for Eskom to burn extra diesel in the short term. According to Eskom, this can reduce at least two stages of load shedding with almost 2000MW via major diesel-burning open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs). This will bypass the NERSA ruling of two weeks ago that turned down Eskom’s application for a wholesale diesel licence.

• Incentivise solar for individuals to take care of their own energy needs and lighten the load on the grid. This provides power to the people and decreases load shedding. Look to Vietnam: In one year, the country increased their electricity production by 9000MW, or 9 stages of load shedding, by offering incentives for households to install solar.

• South Africa should move as quickly as possible to a democratised energy market, a model that is used by all first-world countries. This involves the "unbundling" of Eskom into three separate legal entities - Generation, Transmission and Distribution. Once this is in place, any private power producer would be able to put power onto the grid, instead of having to wait for the Eskom REIPPP (Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme) bid windows, which have been failing recently.

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• Review all special contracts with all the large power users – the mining houses, and industry. For example, the contracts that the smelters have with Eskom span over decades, and they receive electricity at a reduced rate. The benefit to Eskom of keeping these contracts in place is far outweighed by the cost to the economy during these times of extreme load shedding. Reviewing or cancelling the contracts would free up more electricity for the nation.

• Ensure that experienced, technically competent people are hired into the top spots in Eskom. Shortlisted board and key executives candidates must be interviewed on public forums - televised nationally. As Eskom's CEO, COO, and other high-level executives leaving Eskom, technically competent candidates with experience in Eskom, who understand the complexities of the power station equipment, and what is needed to increase their EAF (Energy Availability Factor) should fill those positions.

There is another danger that this immediate action instantly quells: If we become comfortable with rolling blackouts, new industries will mushroom with an incentive to continue the dysfunction that drives their profit and business model. Such tenderpreneurs rarely struggle to find eager politicians willing to do their bidding. This was the lesson from the State Capture Commission. This must be avoided at all costs.

Now is not the time to spectate and wallow in despair, now is the time to turn our anger into activism. There is no substitute for South Africa waiting in the wings. This is the only one we have, and we owe it to future generations to stand firm and fight. 

- Mmusi Maimane is Leader of Build One South Africa (BOSA).

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