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South Africa: State, ANC to Discuss Power Crisis
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
22 April 2008
Posted to the web 22 April 2008
Karima Brown
Johannesburg
THE government and the African National Congress (ANC) agreed yesterday to set up a joint task team to prepare for an urgent energy summit to address the electricity crisis.
This follows a special meeting of the ANC national working committee attended by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin and Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica.
Yesterday's gathering was the second time that the ANC's top brass asked cabinet ministers to provide the party with more details on how it planned to deal with the electricity challenges. "We have to talk, and seek consensus on the matter. We have to find each other," said ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said.
He would not be drawn on who will serve on the task team, but it is understood that the ruling party and the government will each nominate three people to serve on the task team.
Erwin and Mantashe will be included in the group.
The ANC has placed on record its unhappiness about the government's backing of power utility Eskom's proposed 53% tariff hike.
Eskom has warned that it could suffer a loss of up to R10bn this financial year if the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) turns down its request for a 53% real increase.
The ANC has come out strongly against Eskom's proposal to Nersa for a 53% electricity tariff increase, saying such an increase would be "unfair".
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said the proposed tariff would hit poor households the most.
At its last national working committee gathering, the party said it was against the poor having to foot the bill for Eskom's planning failures. ANC spokeswoman Jesse Duarte said that one of the issues the party needed clarity on was the "cost drivers" at Eskom.
"The meeting between the government and the ANC is so that we can develop a better understanding of what exactly is going on," Duarte said.
Mantashe said yesterday's talks with government leaders made "significant progress in identifying some of the key challenges" in tackling this crisis and the principal issues that should guide the country's approach to electricity tariffs.
"The meeting agreed on the need to convene a national energy summit as a matter of urgency. It also established a task team that would consider various options in preparation for the summit," the party said.
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The energy summit to be convened by next month at the latest, would also use the timeframe set up by the Nersa process, Mantashe said.
Plans for the summit come as ANC's allies Cosatu and the SA Communist Party embark on protests against Eskom's proposed electricity hikes.
Asked if the ANC would endorse Cosatu's call for all financial assistance to Eskom to be halted until there was greater clarity on what the money would be used for Mantashe said: "We can't engage on the basis of demands, so it will be like putting the cart before the horse. I am solution driven, that is what we want in the end, solutions that will work."
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It is really amazing that by today, 2 May 2008, several months after the energy crisis hit the nation, the energy summit is still being planned. These two institutions (government and ANC) have been, for that matter, aware for a couple of years that there was a crisis in the management of electricity in the country due to the failure of the Eskom executives to communicate effectively to government what needed to be done to avoid this situation and what the consequences will be if no prompt action is taken. The Financial Mail of last week carries an article on... [Read Full Text]
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