Mbeki calls for unity on energy
Luyanda Makapela
8 February 2008President Thabo Mbeki has called on South Africans to work together to resolve the country's electricity crisis, which has resulted in power cuts across the country over the past month.
Delivering his State of the Nation address in Parliament, Cape Town on Friday, Mbeki apologized for the power cuts on behalf of the government and state company Eskom, and thanked South Africans for their resilience and forbearance in the face of the difficulties.
Mbeki said the national emergency represented by the current power shortage posed both a challenge and an opportunity for citizens to join with the government and "act in unity to keep the country on course."
"[T]his historical moment demands that our nation ... strain every sinew of its collective body to ... keep alive the dream that has sustained all of us as we travelled along the uncharted road towards the creation of the South Africa visualised in our Constitution," Mbeki said.
"This must say to all of us that we are indeed in a period of challenges, but surmountable challenges, and precisely because it is a period of challenges, it is also an era of opportunity."
The President paid particular tribute to the country's mining industry for the way it had "assisted us and the economy to resolve a real crisis that hit us on the 24th of January."
'Energy champions'
Mbeki said provincial premiers would be meeting with mayors to plan and implement energy-saving measures in municipalities across the country. They would be supported by technical teams from EDI Holdings, Eskom and the National Energy Efficiency Agency, with co-ordination from the Department of Provincial and Local Government supported by the Departments of Minerals and Energy and Public Enterprises.
The President, for his part, would convene a meeting of the joint presidential working groups to coordinate the country's overall response to the crisis.
"I will also shortly announce a team of 'energy champions' consisting of prominent and knowledgeable South Africans who will assist government with the energy efficiency campaign and inform investors and communities on the actual situation and how they can help to address our current challenges," Mbeki said.
Supply side measures
On the supply side, Eskom was working furiously to ensure the introduction of co-generated projects as a matter of urgency, while the government was taking steps to enhance Eskom's maintenance capacity.
"We have emergency task teams dealing with the challenge of coal quality and supply with the coal mining industry, and we are working to fast-track the approval and construction of gas turbine projects."
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel is expected to provide more information on government support for Eskom and the country's energy efficiency campaign in his Budget speech later in February.
"We face an emergency, but we can overcome the problems in a relatively short period," Mbeki said, while noting that the situation had prompted the "inevitable realisation that the era of very cheap and abundant electricity has come to an end.
"However, given our large base of installed generation capacity for a long time to come, ours will remain among the few economies with affordable electricity."
Save, save, save
Mbeki said the significant rise in electricity demand over the last two years had outstripped the new capacity the government had brought on stream. "The resultant tight supply situation makes the overall system vulnerable to any incident affecting the availability of energy.
"In this situation, we have to curtail the unplanned outages, and the only way we can do this immediately is reduce demand and thus ensure a better reserve margin.
"Among other things, we must use the current adversity to ensure that our homes and economy become more energy efficient," Mbeki said.
The government would soon start implementing a campaign to ensure efficient lighting, solar water heating and geyser load management in households, including new standards for all new houses and developments.
"We urge households that can afford to act immediately to consider implementing these energy-saving measures," Mbeki added.
The details of other voluntary and mandatory measures would be refined through consultation before being published, he said.
Source: BuaNews
