It’s more than a month since President Cyril Ramaphosa lifted the limit for generation for companies without the need for a licence from 1MW to 100MW – but gazetting of the amendment is taking far longer than necessary.
That’s the view of Liz McDaid, parliamentary and energy adviser for the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa).
“After grim years of loadshedding, it seemed that South Africa’s future was brighter, with cutting of red tape for embedded generation projects of up to 100 MW. This frees up industry and business to build and use their own substantial embedded generation capacity, giving them a more reliable electricity supply and easing pressure on the national grid,” says McDaid.
“But weeks later, we’re still waiting for Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, to formally gazette this updated limit in an amendment to Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act.
“Why is gazetting this amendment taking so long? Is this an indication that the minister does not really support the president’s announcement?”
She believes that raising the threshold was an urgent decision that took too long to be made, due primarily to Mantashe’s apparent opposition to it. “Now the minister is dragging his feet over gazetting the raised threshold.”
When the president made the announcement in June, he said that the relevant legal processes would be followed, and gave the minister 60 days to gazette the amendment.
Outa believes this matter is urgent and not complicated and that 60 days are not required waiting time but a maximum.
