Month: July 2023

Eskom and City Power have reenergised the Randburg substation following the theft of 10 000 litres of oil on the substation’s transformer.

The oil was drained from the transformer last week in what was described as an act of vandalism on the substation with cables also stolen on a second transformer.

“This momentarily affected electricity supply to the residents of Randburg. Supply to the customers was soon restored as soon as City Power was able to replace the stolen cable. Eskom has been working around the clock to repair and refuel the transformer.

“This process involves refuelling more than 10 000l of the stolen oil, circulating and purifying it so that City Power can take load,” a joint statement read.

The two power utilities noted that there has been increased incidents of vandalism to substations, “resulting in the loss of revenue and increased replacement costs for both organisations”.

“These criminal acts do not only affect the power utilities but they inconvenience law abiding, paying customers and community service points such as healthcare and education facilities, businesses and the economy at large,” the statement read.

The power suppliers called on citizens to report any criminality on electricity infrastructure.

“Members of the public are requested to partner with Eskom and City Power by reporting electricity related criminal acts such as cable and transformer oil theft, illegal connections and vandalism of electricity infrastructure.

“They are also asked to refrain from recording and sharing material that is not factual about outages as this may lead to confusion and panic amongst the affected customers. Customers are urged to use our communication platforms to obtain reliable and correct information,” Eskom and City Power said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

The Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) has welcomed the publishing for comments of the draft South Africa Renewable Energy Masterplan (SAREM).

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy published the draft masterplan for comments on Monday.

The SAREM is a document 18 months in the making with the DMRE holding extensive consultations with stakeholders, industry experts, labour and other government departments.

“The SAREM heralds a new impetus for our country’s renewable energy drive and ambition. To this end, as PCC we welcome the four priorities as outlined in SAREM being: Supporting the local demand for renewable energy by unlocking market demand and system readiness, driving industrial development by building renewable energy value chains, and supportive trade and industrial policy, fostering inclusive development through transformation, supporting the development of emerging suppliers and building local capabilities in skills and innovation and associated industrial development.

“The PCC therefore acknowledges the SAREM as a catalytic contribution to our country’s transition to a net zero carbon future and provides a baseline for social consensus and further detailed planning and implementation of essential projects and programmes to achieve our objectives by 2030,” the commission said.

The PCC emphasised that although the SAREM is a step in the right direction, resolving South Africa’s current energy crisis remains a top priority.

“The commission reiterates that the immediate challenge remains the current energy crisis and reaffirms its support for the Energy Action Plan, and the broader reforms to the energy sector particularly, the lifting of the cap on embedded generation, and enabling household roof-top solar systems through incentives and feed-in tariff regime as announced previous by government.

“The Commission believes that the Masterplan should contribute to the achievement of a just transition and supports the shift of South Africa’s electricity supply and reiterates the need of a ‘transition-capable’ developmental state to navigate the complexities of transition and in moving forward, the PCC will submit additional comment on the SAREM to the DMRE for consideration by government on the implementation of the SAREM in line with our recent pronouncement on the energy mix,” the PCC said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

South Africa is honoured to take over the Chairmanship of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) under the leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa, says Public Service and Administration Deputy Minister, Dr Chana Pilane-Majake.

“Our focus is to build a partnership between BRICS and Africa to unlock mutually beneficial opportunities for increased trade, investment and infrastructure,” she said.

The Deputy Minister said Africa, through the African Union (AU), has engineered and approved the African Union’s Agenda 2063, with the intention of building strong institutions to enhance cross-border economic development and good governance.

Pilane-Majake said this when she addressed the BRICS Conference on Governance and Public Administration Reform at the University of Pretoria. The event was held as a build-up towards the BRICS Summit which will be held in August in South Africa.

The government of South Africa, she said, was certain that the BRICS partnership had the ability to support South Africa and the African continent at large on the journey towards economic recovery.

“This will contribute to making Africa’s economy globally competitive, reduce the cost of doing business, attract investments, and stimulate economic growth, thus alleviating poverty and unemployment,” she said.

Pilane-Majake said without capable public institutions, there is a risk of collapse of governments and other sectors of society.

“Building capable institutions requires an investment in building human capabilities to be diligent, masterful and innovative,” she said.

The National School of Government in South Africa remains a key institution to drive the developmental state agenda of building state capacity. This year marks 10 years since the establishment of the National School of Government.

Source: South African Government News Agency

The Presidency has welcomed the decision of the Johannesburg High Court ordering that the answering affidavit related to the International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant matter be made public.

“President Ramaphosa was never opposed to making the affidavits public; it was only in compliance with the ICC directive that the Presidency sought to maintain confidentiality on the affidavit,” the Presidency said in a statement on Tuesday.

This comes after President Ramaphosa filed a confidential affidavit in response to an application by the DA seeking a declaratory order to compel the state to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin should he set foot in South Africa ahead of the BRICS Summit next month.

In March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin, who is expected to attend the BRICS conference in Johannesburg on August 22-23.

South Africa is a signatory to the Rome Statute and continues to campaign for equal and consistent application of international law.

BRICS is a bloc of emerging economies that includes Russia, Brazil, India, China and South Africa.

Source: South African Government News Agency