The President appeared before the National Assembly yesterday for oral replies. This forms part of President’s responsibility to appear before the two House of Parliament, National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces, once or more in a year to answer questions to Members of Parliament. His appearance before both Houses of Parliament is determined by the programme committees of the respective houses and the nature of his appearance is covered in the rules of both Houses.
Yesterday, he gave response to the National Assembly to issues ranging from the cancellation of Soweto’s electricity debt, the effects of load shedding to the economy, the yet-undisclosed mechanics of the sale of South African Airways, the efficacy of broad-based black economic empower and affirmative action and climate change.
Q: Will government consider cancelling the electricity debt of Soweto as suggested by the new Premier of Gauteng, Panyaza Lesufi, asked Mr Wouter Wessels.
President’s answer: One can understanding the aspirational wish of the new Premier of Gauteng Province. But it should be balanced with other considerations that South Africans must pay for services rendered to them. One says this against a back drop of social hardship that South Africans are going through due hikes in sin taxes and food prices. But also we must consider this against an entity that is reeling against high debt. All in all, we have to balance various precarious burdens of the state, hardships of poverty, unemployment and the debt burden that Eskom carries. We need a balanced discussion on how best to deal with these scenarios amicably.
Q: What are the causes of current load shedding and what are the mitigating interventions that government will come up with to curtail its effect on the economy, asked Mr Julius Malema.
A: The challenges facing Eskom are two-fold: structural and operational. Structural insufficiencies have necessitated government to invest in new generation capacity, which has not been capacitated for two decades. To address this, government intend to bring on board 40 000 to 60 000 mega-watts to Eskom grid to shore up our energy generation capacity. The current situation was made worst by the faulty designs of Kusile and Medupi, state capture and corruption.
Operationally, Eskom’s power stations have for a long time been running in high capacity with little refurbishment. Government is pleased that the current board has the requisite skills, experience and expertise. We appeal that they must be given space to improve the efficiencies at Eskom and to manage its operational plans.
Now, Eskom is geared towards quality maintenance to maintain that which we have. This coupled by the drive to recruit experienced engineers and old power station managers.
But the lasting solution to load shedding is the introduction of solar, gas, hydro energy as part of our country’s energy mix toward sustainable energy supply.
Q: What does the government seek to achieve through its Infrastructure Fund, asked Ms Rosina Semenya.
A: The Infrastructure Fund is part of our economic recovery plan, because infrastructure play a critical role in economic growth. But also, this fund seeks to bring about blended finance from both the public and private sector to create a credible pipeline for social transformation projects. Government has committed 100 billion to leverage R1 trillion in the next 10 years. These investment projects will comprise of energy, water, transport, digital and social infrastructure through social housing and student housing. These projects are aimed at stimulating socio-economic growth.
Q: What is the progress of the work of the Presidential Climate Change Commission and is it on course to assist the country to meet its climate change obligations, asked Mr Narend Singh.
A: We all know that climate change is an existential threat. The commission has made a number of recommendations towards a just energy transition. We have established this commission because we have recognised the need to reduce our greenhouse emissions to lower our carbon emission footprint.
The commission has also developed a just energy transition plan that includes critical public and private stakeholders, scientists and researchers to navigate the net-zero energy pathways and to leverage necessary funding, which will amount to trillions of rands. It’s this commission that will assist government to monitor and evaluate our country’s climate change commitments to enhance its effective response to just energy transition.
We do all of this to ensure that as we phase out our aging and greenhouse-emitting energy facilities we are reskilling those now employed in coal power stations so that they can be absorbed in new clean energy sectors.
Q: Broad based black economic empowerment has proven to be a stumbling block to our country’s economic growth, because it excludes many skilled whites from participating actively in our economy. Would government consider scrapping it, asked Dr Petrus Groenewald?
A: Broad based black economic empowerment and affirmative action were meant to address the socio-economic imbalances created by apartheid misrule. While progress has been made in this regard, these policies have not been felt by many, especially black women. And these policies are not just about social justice, but to ensure that the economy is opened to black people to get rid of years of apartheid regime that legislatively prevented black people from participating in their own economy.
Until we open the economy to all, we won’t realise our economic potential. And in this generation, I don’t know of any black people who inherited wealth from their parents. But we have many white people who inherited wealth from their parent.
As such, these policies are meant to ensure that black people don’t continue to inherit generational poverty. If not, how do we address the anomalies of apartheid to come up with inclusive economy?
Q: On what basis was South African Airways sold and for how much, when it has not produced any audited financial statements in four years. And how much is the value of the 51% stake sold to Takatso Consortium its private partner. And when will government be transparent about the details of this transaction of a state entity.
A: Your quest for transparency is understandable. That is what we would like to see in a state-owned entity. So that people can understand the full mechanics of this deal. But the secrecy about it is because it’s currently before court and the competition’s commission.
The cabinet recently had an update on this transaction; it will soon be shared with the public how its pricing was arrived at and what was SAA value.
But it must be said that SAA was bankrupt and without this transaction it was going to be liquidated because its liabilities exceeded its assets. What people don’t know is that SAA did not have tangible assets. It did not own its own planes; its value was its routes. That needs to be shared with the public. Nothing in this transaction was struck in secrecy.
A company that was unable to produce financial statements shows that it was in chaos. And that translated into its viability and current financial transaction.
Like any transaction, this transaction’s mechanics were kept confidentially. But politically, we have to ensure we address the issue of its transparency.
Abel Mputing
4 November 2022
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