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Sustainable Energy: Ensuring policy and regulatory certainty for greater investment
and regulatory certainty for greater investments Ensuring policy
The South African government is committed to addressing the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality. The lives of ordinary South Africans have improved, and their dignity restored, over the past 25 years. T his is despite c hallenges that persist.
By Gwede Mantashe, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy
One of the priorities of the 6th democratic Administration, as declared by President Cyril Ramaphosa, is the transformation of the economy to create growth, jobs and ensure inclusiveness. This can be achieved through, amongst others, meaningful investments. Therefore, the imperative for policy and regulatory certainty to enable investment decisions. The mining and energy portfolio is critical to economic growth and development. Thus, merging the departments asserts their mutually reinforcing nature. It enables the streamlining of processes, integration in the value chain from upstream to downstream, and ensures alignment of the policy and regulatory framework. This should result in an adequately capacitated, efficient and responsive department, aligned to the needs of the industry and economy.
Clear requirements for current & potential investors in mining The Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA), as well as Section 100 thereof, provide clear requirements for current and potential investors into mining. In 2018, the Department gazetted the Mining Charter 2018 for implementation, following months of intensive engagements with stakeholders in the industry. The Charter – which recognises workers and host communities as shareholders – is an important contributory element to efforts aimed at stimulating the economy. Gazetting of the Charter, which represents a consensus among stakeholders, has created the necessary certainty in the industry, which was recognised by the Fraser Institute. In its 2018 survey, the Institute ranked South Africa in terms of the attractiveness of its mining policies, 56th out of 83 countries surveyed – an improvement of 25 places, compared to being ranked number 81 out of 91 countries in 2017. These ratings recognise the work done by government in providing stability and certainty on policy and regulation of the mining industry. I ndeed, the Charter provides certainty and the Department will continue to work with the sector to ensure the Charter is beneficial to all.
In its 2018 survey, the I nstitute ranked South Africa in terms of the attractiveness of its mining policies, 56th out of 83 countries surveyed – an improvement of 25 places, compared to being ranked number 81 out of 91 countries in 201 7. “
Growth and competitiveness strategy at an advanced stage The development of a growth and competitiveness strategy is at an advanced stage. We are conscious that growth, transformation and competitiveness are all critical for the long-term sustainability of the mining sector.
We are moving with the necessary speed to finalise the legislation governing the upstream petroleum sector, which will bring much-needed certainty to this growing sector of our economy.
Despite the present economic climate, we must ascertain a secure and sustainable provision of energy for the socio-economic development of our country. To this end, the Integrated Resource Plan (IR P) was approved by Cabinet and released in October 2019 for implement ation. T his approval further brought cert ainty to a sector that is a catalyst for growth and development. I n line with the mandate of the Department, the IR P 2019 supports a diversified energy mix that includes all forms of energy tec hnologies such as cleaner coal, nuclear, gas, hydro, renewables and battery storage. Ours is to use diverse energy resources in sustainable quantities, at affordable prices and mindful of environmental requirements. A dditional capacity to the energy mix as contained in the IR P 2019 for the period up to 203 0 is as follows: 1 500MW of generation from coal, 2 500MW from hydro, 6 000MW from photovoltaic, 14 400MW from wind, 2 088MW from storage and 3 000MW from gas. The IR P 2019 puts to rest the often-polemical debate regarding the country’s future energy mix. T he department has been categorically clear from the onset that ours is not to be a lobby group for a particular energy technology, but rather to execute our mandate of ensuring security of energy supply, using all available resources. Now that the energy mix has been outlined, we must work with the necessary speed and resolve to ensure its implementation. We are encouraged by the continued confidence shown in the South African economy by investors – particularly the increased commitments from South A frican businesses as witnessed during the second South Africa Investment Conference. n
