Johannesburg - The government must cancel electricity supply contracts to South Africa's neighbours and to dip into its budget surplus to deal with the country's current electricity crisis, says the Democratic Alliance.
Presenting an alternative to the government's plan of action to deal with Eskom's current inability to deal with energy demands, the DA says neither Eskom nor the government have been able to produce either a coherent short-term strategy to improve South Africa's power generation capacity, nor a communication plan which keeps South Africans properly informed.
"The cabinet's long-overdue plan to address South Africa's power crisis is a welcome recognition of the extent of the problem we face. However, the measures announced last week do not go far enough, leave many avenues unexplored and do not deal with the root cause of the problem - Eskom's poor management and its monopoly over power generation.
"Most importantly, however, the measures punish consumers, but place very few obligations on the government to improve its own performance and compensate for its own failings in the past," said the DA's spokesperson on environmental affairs and tourism, Gareth Morgan who also stressed that this situation called for using the budget surplus, which is between R20bn and R27bn.
'Use budget surplus'
"The government needs to commit itself to getting South Africa out of this crisis by using a portion of the budget surplus to make Eskom's plans for the 2007/08 financial year viable. Despite the fact that both the president and deputy president have apologised for a bad decision not to authorise spending on new power stations ten years ago, there is still no indication that government is really serious about compensating for this previous neglect," said Morgan.
Eskom's capital expansion programme has been stymied by the government's refusal to allow it to increase electricity costs by the amount it requires.
"The government needs to commit itself to getting South Africa out of this crisis by using a portion of the budget surplus to make Eskom's plans for the 2007/08 financial year viable," stated the DA document, which also outlined how the official opposition would diversify sources of energy generation as well as reduce consumption.
Solar water heaters
The DA called on the government to subsidise generators and install at least two million solar water heaters in households in metropolitan areas by the end of 2011 and to pass metro by-laws that made these heaters a requirement for new buildings and additions to buildings.
Making better use of South Africa's wind power was also on the DA list.
"Government and Eskom must, among other things, expand the Klipheuwel wind power programme to other suitable parts of the country; and ensure that the South African National Energy Research Institute completes an updated and accurate wind power atlas by the end of 2008," said Morgan, who described Eskom's monopoly power as one of the main reasons why the country was facing such a shortage in generating capacity.
The DA pledged to pursue all policy and legislative avenues to ensure Eskom's monopoly as the sole of purchaser of electricity in South Africa is done away with.
With a view to reducing consumption, Morgan said: "The DA finds it necessary that electricity-supply contracts to our neighbouring states must be examined with a view to cancelling them wherever legally possible. This process must be managed carefully to minimize unnecessary penalties owing to contractual obligations and to avoid straining relations with these neighbouring countries."
Morgan also called for the government to ensure that electricity was used more efficiently and, where possible, not at all. The DA plans to do this by getting Eskom and the government to:
- Coordinate the distribution of at least 15 million CFLs to low income households by the end of 2008, to achieve savings of between 460MW and 660MW;
- Develop a policy, in consultation with industry, for the mandatory energy consumption labelling of all appliances, including consumption in the standby mode, by the end of 2009.
Aside from more accountability from the politicians, especially those overseeing public enterprises and minerals. The DA also called for better policing and penalties for non-payment and illegal connections.
- Fin24