DA doing all it can to cut out or reduce reliance on Eskom where it governs

At a press conference on Tuesday, the Democratic Alliance said that they were looking at every option to procure energy directly from power suppliers other than Eskom.

DA leader Mmusi Maimane said “shameless corruption and mismanagement of Eskom and disdain towards an independent energy sector has left South Africa on the brink of a national disaster”.

He was speaking near an Eskom substation in Randburg, Johannesburg, with the DA metro executive mayors of Cape Town (Dan Plato), Johannesburg (Herman Mashaba) and Tshwane (Stevens Mokgalapa), as well as DA Gauteng premier candidate Solly Msimanga.

He said South Africans should not be fooled by the temporary, short-term “breather” from rolling power cuts experienced this week.

“This is by no means a sign that all is well, and that the structural problems have been solved. The ANC has shown it will stop at nothing to keep the lights on before an election, even if this means the collapse of Eskom – both in terms of its finances and infrastructure. Currently, the ANC national government has chosen to burn billions of rands of diesel in a desperate attempt to keep the lights on as elections are around the corner, while stubbornly refusing to fix the fundamental problems at Eskom and in our energy sector.”

He said DA-led governments provincially (the Western Cape) and municipally had put forward “innovative plans” to mitigate the crisis in the short term, and to stabilise electricity supply in the medium to long term.

Every DA-run municipality had been tasked with formulating and executing disaster management plans to mitigate the damage being caused to critical infrastructure and service delivery by unreliable and intermittent energy supply.

Every DA mayor would also write to Minister of Energy Jeff Radebe requesting a determination in terms of Section 34 of the Electricity Regulation Act 4 of 2006 to allow municipalities to bypass Eskom and procure electricity directly from Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

“Section 34 of the Act empowers the Minister of Energy to allow municipalities to enter into a tender procedure which is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective with the private sector to provide for new generation capacity. This direct licensing arrangement with private sector energy providers must be approved in consultation with, and facilitated by, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA).”

He said the number of IPPs was multiplying across South Africa and was increasingly becoming a sustainable option for municipalities to supplement their electricity supply procured from Eskom.

“In this light, the City of Cape Town will continue full steam ahead with its court action in the North Gauteng High Court, seeking to compel the Minister Radebe to grant a Section 34 determination to the City to procure electricity directly from IPPs. The outcome of this case will set legal precedent for all municipalities in South Africa wanting to provide affordable, reliable and diversified electricity to their residents.”

He added that all DA-run municipalities in the country would explore the viability and sustainability of adopting a bylaw to regulate small-scale embedded generation such as solar power panels installed at businesses and residential homes. This would allow individuals with the capacity to generate their own energy to feed surplus energy into the grid and in turn credit their accounts.

“This bylaw already exists in the City of Cape and 18 other DA-run municipalities and there is no reason it cannot be adopted all across the country. I have tasked all DA mayors to look at the viability within their local circumstances to adopt a similar bylaw, where practicable and financially feasible.

“And lastly, I have tasked caucus leaders of every council the DA is in opposition to table motions stating that Eskom as a single supply monopoly is failing to provide continued and uninterrupted supply of electricity and to compel the relevant mayors to write to the Minister of Energy seeking a Section 34 determination.”

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.