Minister of Electricity and Energy, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, says the department has designed a private sector investment instrument to mobilise resources for modernising South Africa’s energy infrastructure.
The minister made the remarks during the State of the Nation Address (SONA) debate, held in Cape Town, on Wednesday.
“We have designed an instrument. We will be introducing that instrument to the country in the next five weeks and we are going to use that instrument as a template. We’ll take it to Transnet…we’ll take it to all [State Owned Enterprises]. So that we are able to drive infrastructure [investment] forward,” he said.
Over the next ten years, South Africa requires approximately R450 billion to expand transmission lines by some 14 000 km.
Ramokgopa pointed out that government will not be able to bear the financial burden on its own.
“We make the point that the state sovereign balance sheet is weak, the Eskom balance sheet has been eroded, [and] we need to design instruments that help us to ensure that there is accelerated private sector investment,” he said.
Another area where the government aims to increase output is in freight logistics.
“We’ve got a baseline of 149 million tonnes per annum and our target for the year is 170 million tonnes and by 2030 we want to reach 250 million tonnes.
“We have decided that we want to target specific corridors. The Northern Cape Saldanha corridor which carries iron ore and manganese, the northern corridor which carries coal and chrome, the Gauteng-Durban corridor which carries automotive and general freight,” he said.
The transformation project
Turning to geopolitical issues arising from the promulgation of the Expropriation Act, Ramokgopa emphasised that government will press ahead with policies aimed at transforming the country.
“We are determined to protect the gains of the democratic project. We will go and explain ourselves to our allies and articulate the vision of a South Africa that we want; that the transformation project is indeed irreversible.
“We are on the correct path…we will not be bullied,” Ramokgopa said. – SAnews.gov.za
