Energy crisis: DA slams ‘non-report’ to MPs

Durban - Department of Energy officials came under fire for presenting an “underwhelming” report on the country’s energy plans to Parliament on Tuesday, and for failing to allay the country’s fears on the pending electricity crisis.

Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson also came under criticism for snubbing the energy portfolio committee despite an earlier undertaking that she would be present, with some calling for the meeting to be postponed.

Her deputy, Thembi Majola, was also not present.

Officials were taken to task by committee members for being tardy and disorganised before appearing before the committee.

The department briefed the committee on the cabinet-endorsed five-point plan to help deal with the energy challenges.

The department’s deputy director-general for policy, planning and clean energy, Ompi Aphane, presented some of the challenges and the key milestones achieved since the adoption of the five-point plan in December, which is a collaboration between various departments and state entities.

DA MP Gordon Mackay said he found the presentation “quite underwhelming” and called for the meeting to be called off until Joemat-Pettersson’s return from government duty in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He said the minister had not appeared before the committee in six months.

Timelines

“If this is supposed to be a five-point plan, no wonder South Africans are worried. Every single action plan I’ve seen has been very clear on timelines and actions.

“There’s not a single timeline on this document, there’s no distinct actions.

“Frankly, there’s nothing in this document that allays any of our fears about how this problem is going to be resolved. I think the department should be appalled at itself if this is what they present to members of Parliament and frankly to the country,” said Mackay.

He said some MPs only received the report at 7am, a few hours before the briefing, instead of 48 hours before the briefing.

Mackay said nowhere in the presentation did the department indicate how “regulatory hurdles” created by the department and not being dealt with were contributing to the energy crisis.

Committee chairman Fikile Majola said the committee would have a follow-up meeting.

“I want to make sure that we can have a full report that gives us confidence that the different departments know what they’re going to do, how they’re going to do it and where is the funding going to and what are the time frames so we can hold them accountable. But with the level of report we have heard we can’t do that yet.”

Majola said that Parliament needed to find ways to understand certain details better “so we can communicate the message of confidence to our people that things are going to be done ”.

The Mercury