FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT
Monday, 23 January 2023
A week ago, the Sowetan newspaper carried a front page headlined ‘Unplugged’, listing many small businesses around the country that have been crippled by the electricity crisis. The closure of these businesses shows some of the devastating impact of persistent load shedding on people’s livelihoods and on their dreams for a better life.
There are many other reports about the effects of load shedding on people’s lives, about the disruption at hospitals, schools, courts, and other government services. We hear about the factories that lose precious hours of production, farmers that are unable to keep their produce fresh, and investments that are being held back.
As load shedding continues to wreak havoc on businesses, households and communities, the last thing South Africans want to hear are excuses or unrealistic promises. The demands for an immediate end to power cuts are wholly understandable. Everyone is fed up.
However, we in the grip of an energy crisis that has been many years in the making.
Though it may be easy to blame our present woes on dysfunctionality at Eskom, a combination of factors have contributed to the crisis. It is important to recall the reasons for the current situation so that our response tackles the causes of our crisis, not just the symptoms.
Lack of investment in new generating capacity, poor power plant maintenance, corruption and criminality, sabotage of infrastructure, rising municipal debt and a lack of suitable skills at Eskom have all created a perfect storm. There can be no sustainable solution without addressing all these factors in combination.
We should not make the mistakes of the past. For many years, critical maintenance was deferred, and our power stations were run too hard in order to keep the lights on. As a country we are now paying the price for these miscalculations.
We must be realistic about our challenges and about what it is going to take to fix them. While we all desperately want to, we cannot end load shedding overnight.
Over the last few days, I have held consultative meetings with representatives of labour, business, traditional leaders, religious leaders and the community constituency. I have also met with premiers, metro mayors and leaders of political parties.
In each of those meetings, I stressed the importance of staying the course, instead of coming up with unsustainable short-term solutions.
Six months ago I announced a national Energy Action Plan to improve the performance of Eskom’s power stations and add new generation capacity as quickly as possible. This plan was the result of extensive consultation and was endorsed by energy experts as the most realistic path towards ending load shedding.
As we know only too well from the experience of the last few weeks, many of the measures in the plan will not be felt in the immediate term.
That is why we are using every means at our disposal, calling on every resource we have, to get power onto the grid as a matter of extreme urgency.
Eskom’s fleet of coal-fired power stations supplies the bulk of our energy needs. That is why there is a singular focus in Eskom on improving plant performance. A team of independent experts is conducting a diagnosis of the problems at poorly performing power stations and taking action to improve plant performance. Six power stations have been identified for particular focus over the coming months to recover additional capacity.
Eskom is also working to connect Kusile Unit 5 to the grid by September this year. Every urgent effort is being made to restore other units at Medupi, Kusile and Koeberg with significant capacity.
Eskom has imported 300 MW of capacity from neighbouring countries. There are negotiations underway to secure an additional 1,000 MW. Eskom is also working to buy surplus power from companies with available generation capacity for a period of three years.
Government has signed agreements for 25 projects from bid windows 5 and 6 of the renewable energy programme, and these projects will soon be proceeding to construction. Collectively they represent 2,800 MW of new capacity.
To increase the overall supply of electricity, in addition to what Eskom provides, we have taken steps to enable substantial investment by private power producers in new generation capacity. The licensing requirement for embedded generation projects has been removed. Since we first raised the licensing threshold to 100 MW, the pipeline of private sector projects has grown to more than 100 projects with over 9,000 MW of capacity.
We have cut red tape and streamlined regulatory processes, reducing the timeframes for environmental authorisations, registration of new projects and grid connection approvals.
Another major source of new generating capacity are solar panels on the roofs of houses and businesses.
Work will soon be completed on a pricing structure that will allow customers to sell surplus electricity from rooftop solar panels into the grid.
We can all play our part by paying for the electricity that we use. The huge debt owed to Eskom by municipalities badly affects Eskom’s ability to fund critical maintenance.
All the stakeholders I have met over the last week, without exception, appreciate the seriousness, the depth and the complexity of the challenges we face. They have all expressed their commitment to take whatever measures that are required to restore our electricity supply and get on with the task of improving the lives of the South African people.
While we cannot end load shedding immediately, what is certain is that if we work together with urgency to implement the Energy Action Plan, load shedding will steadily become less and less severe. Through collective action, we will much sooner reach the point where we have enough power to end load shedding altogether.
With best regards,
PRESIDENT MOURNS THE PASSING OF DR FRENE GINWALA
Dr Ginwala passed away at her at home on Thursday night, 12 January 2023, at the age of 90, following a stroke two weeks ago.
On behalf of the nation and of the legislative, executive and judicial components of the State, the President offers his sincere condolences to Dr. Ginwala’s family, her nephews Cyrus, Sohrab and Zavareh, and their families.
The President extends his condolences to Dr. Ginwala’s friends, colleagues and associates in South Africa and beyond.
Born on 25 April 1932, Frene Noshir Ginwala served the anti-apartheid struggle and South Africa’s democratic dispensation in a diversity of roles as a lawyer, academic, political leader, activist and journalist.
In 2005, she was honoured with the Order of Luthuli in Silver for her excellent contribution to the struggle against gender oppression and her tireless contribution to the struggle for a non-sexist, non-racial, just and democratic South Africa.
President Ramaphosa said: “Today we mourn the passing of a formidable patriot and leader of our nation, and an internationalist to whom justice and democracy around the globe remained an impassioned objective to her last days.
“Among the many roles she adopted in the course of a life she led to the full, we are duty-bound to recall her establishment of our democratic Parliament which exercised the task of undoing decades-old apartheid legislation and fashioning the legislative foundations of the free and democratic South Africa.
“Many of the rights and material benefits South Africans enjoy today have their origins in the legislative programme of the inaugural democratic Parliament under Dr. Ginwala’s leadership, with Nelson Mandela occupying the seat of the first President to be elected by the democratic Parliament.
“Frene Ginwala epitomised the ethos and expectations of our then fledgling Constitution and played an important role in building the capacity of Parliament through the transformation of activists and leaders into lawmakers who were in turn able to transform our country.
“Dr. Ginwala was similarly influential and instrumental in shaping the advancement of democracy and the entrenchment of democratic political processes and fundamental socio-economic rights in the Southern African Development Community and the continent at large.
“Beyond African shores, she positioned our young democracy both as one that had as much to contribute to as it had to learn from global precedents and experience.
“We have lost another giant among a special generation of leaders to whom we owe our freedom and to whom we owe our commitment to keep building the South Africa to which they devoted their all.”...
President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared a period of mourning for seven days from Tuesday, 17 January 2023, in honour of Dr Frene Ginwala.
Issued by: The Presidency
NEW YEAR MESSAGE BY PRESIDENT CYRIL RAMAPHOSA
31 December 2022
In a few hours we will ring in a new year.
It is a time for fresh starts in a number of aspects that affect our lives and for making resolutions to do things better.
It is also a time of hope – hope for a better life for ourselves, and for things to become better for the country that we all love.
2022 has been a difficult year. It is a year during which South Africans continued to endure the hardships that are given rise to by unemployment, poverty and persistent inequality.
On top of all this we have had to deal with the rising cost of living and an energy crisis.
We have also been burdened by the loss of loved ones to a number of tragedies.
There have been devastating tragic events that have destroyed both lives and livelihoods.
These events have included floods, fatal vehicle crashes, deaths in taverns, dam wall collapses, drownings, fires in informal settlements and most recently, the terrible explosion of a fuel tanker in Boksburg in Gauteng that killed at least 34 people.
A number of young men have lost their lives during the summer initiation season, turning what was meant to be a time of joy and celebration into a time of sorrow.
Our thoughts and prayers are with all the bereaved families.
May the Lord embrace and comfort all families who suffered loss as a result of these tragic events.
With all that has happened this past year, we must remain optimistic and have hope. For hope does spring eternal in the human breast.
Much as we are going through a stormy phase in the life of a country, storms do eventually pass.
Two years ago when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, I said that we would overcome. And we have.
The Covid-19 pandemic no longer determines how we live our lives.
We have been able to shelter society’s most vulnerable from its worst effects.
Our economy is growing again and is now larger than it was before the pandemic.
Over the past year, around 1.5 million new jobs were created.
The Presidential Employment Stimulus, which has provided opportunities to more than a million citizens, is growing and thriving.
We are improving the business operating environment and attracting new investment.
We are undertaking reforms in the operation of our ports and railways, and in our telecommunications, water and electricity sectors.
We are working hard to end the crisis of load shedding.
We are increasing the amount of renewable energy on the grid
The benefits of this work may not be immediately felt, but we should expect that these efforts will steadily reduce the need for load shedding until it is no longer necessary.
Over the last year, there have been milestones in the fight against corruption.
The State Capture Commission handed over its final report and government has set out a plan for the implementation of its recommendations.
There have been several arrests, prosecutions and convictions for corruption and cases related to state capture.
Significant amounts of stolen funds have been recovered by state owned companies like Eskom and Transnet.
Just as the new year is a time for a fresh start in our personal lives, so too must it be for the life of our nation.
South Africans want to see our country’s electricity challenges resolved.
They want to see tougher action against corruption.
They want to lead lives of dignity and to have jobs.
They want to live in safety, freedom and peace.
We must build on the important work that has been done this past year to determine our actions in the next.
We must intensify the fight against poverty and inequality, unemployment, crime and gender-based violence.
This is what South Africans want and deserve.
Even as we face the challenges of today and tomorrow, the people of South Africa still hold fast to the belief in our nation’s greatness.
They are determined to see our country prosper and thrive.
As we look to the year ahead, we pay tribute to the many outstanding South Africans who have served our nation.
We pay tribute to the lifeguards, emergency workers, law-enforcement personnel, fire fighters, nurses, doctors and other health care workers.
We pay tribute to our educators, who have worked so hard to restore our classrooms as places of learning, and to the learners themselves who have given their very best in centres of learning.
We thank the hard working staff, businesses and suppliers who keep our streets clean, who transport commuters, and who provide our homes with various services.
We applaud the farmers and farmworkers who produce our food.
We thank those who opened their hearts to victims of tragedy and helped wherever and however they could.
Our humanity and our unity during times of hardship is what makes us who we are.
Let us enter 2023 with the courage and resilience for which we are known.
Let us keep going and keep on trying, no matter how difficult it gets.
By working together, we can and will rebuild our country., We can and will improve our economy and improve the lives of our people.
Wherever you are at this time, I wish you a happy, prosperous and peaceful new year.
I thank you.
President Cyril Ramaphosa
WEEKLY PRESIDENTIAL SPOKESPERSON MEDIA BRIEFING STATEMENTS AND PROGRAMME UPDATE
12 January 2023
On the 11th of January 2023, President Cyril Ramaphosa, chaired the meeting of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC). This was the first meeting of the PEAC for 2023. In his opening remarks, President Ramaphosa acknowledged the difficulties that confront the global economy which invariably impact on South Africa’s growth prospects.
The President reflected on the IMF’s ‘darkening outlook’ for the global economy in 2023, which is being fuelled by slowdowns in the US, China and EU economies, the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the residual effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, increases in natural disasters around the globe, persistently high inflation and the global cost of living crisis.
Despite South Africa being snared by its own strong headwinds with devastating floods, the rising cost of living and the energy crisis, there was however encouraging signs of recovery as demonstrated by an increase of economic activity during the third quarter of 2022.
Promising activity in the agricultural, finance, insurance real estate and business services sectors enabled real GDP to expand by 1.6 per cent, and the size of the South African economy now surpasses pre-pandemic levels.
The meeting noted several recovery drivers that need to be sustained going into 2023 and beyond, these are;
• 1.5 million Jobs were created over the past year, and in the year to the third quarter of 2022 total employment increased by 10.4 per cent.
• The Presidential Employment Stimulus, reached over one million participants.
• The structural reforms aimed at raising growth, attract investment and create more jobs.
• Key reforms in the energy, IT, ports, rail, water and other sectors that are currently underway which will continue to improve the business operating environment as well as South Africa’s competitiveness as an investment destination.
• The Just Energy Transition Investment Plan that will pave the way for additional investments into renewable based energy infrastructure.
• The R2 billion blended finance program launched by the Department of Agriculture Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) working collaboratively with the Land Bank. The Blended Finance program is designed to address many challenges emerging farmers face.
• The Presidential Employment Stimulus Initiative launched as part of the recovery package from Covid-19 shock, enabling subsistence and small-scale farmers to buy the inputs they need (about 100 000 farmers were assisted). This intervention helped to improve household food production.
The Council agreed that all social partners need to work hard on the expansion of areas of economic opportunity and employment and to find practical and sustainable solutions to mitigate load shedding, drawing from international experience and to alleviate poverty.
National Energy Plan update
President Ramaphosa deeply regrets the current energy situation which has placed the country into stage 6 load shedding. The President acknowledges the frustration of households, parents and learners who have commenced the school calendar year facing power shortages. The devastation to small businesses and the adverse impact to the economy remains severe for South Africa’s recovering economy.
On the 15th of December, President Ramaphosa convened a National Energy Crisis Committee comprising of Ministers and various technical work stream leads. Whilst the President acknowledged some of the progress made in the executing elements of the National Energy Plan, he further demanded more urgency and speed in the implementation of all priority areas and actions laid out in the National Energy Plan.
To date President Ramaphosa remains seized with finding a sustainable solution to the current energy crisis. The President has been regularly briefed on the situation at Eskom and on the roll out of the National Energy Plan. More engagements are scheduled for today and tomorrow for a review of the situation and direction on urgent measures that must be undertaken in order to mitigate against the impact of load shedding.
Despite the current gloomy state of load shedding the National Energy Crisis Committee work streams continue to make progress on serval areas aimed at ensuring the stability of the grid and finding additional megawatts. Herewith are some of the areas of progress that are noteworthy.
• We have removed the licensing threshold through amendment to Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulatory Act. This was gazetted on 15th December 2022.
• A dedicated team in the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) has been established to work closely with Eskom Transmission to expedite expropriation and servitudes. The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure has in the last two months signed notices of intent to expropriate for 27 parcels of private land. 46 servitudes on DPWI land are being processed, of which 22 will be finalized in January 2023.
• Eskom has identified up to 1000 MW of additional power to be imported from Mozambique and other countries in the SADC region, pending negotiations and regulatory approvals. This is in addition to the 300 MW already secured through the Southern African Power Pool.
• Significant potential capacity has already been identified for the standard offer and emergency generation programme (potential of 1600 MW) developed by Eskom – this will be implemented as a matter of urgency by the utility as no NERSA concurrence is required.
A net billing framework, and later a feed-in tariff, is being developed to credit customers for any surplus energy they are able to feed into the grid, this is targeting residential as well as commercial and industrial installations. Further consultations are planned for the current month of January to finalise arrangements with a broad range of stakeholders.
• Independent team has been assembled to diagnose challenges at power station level (including former Power Station Managers), starting with Duvha, Kusile, Kriel, Tutuka, Hendrina and Matla. This team is working with the management and board of Eskom.
• The process to improve the availability of spare parts & expertise from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) through more agile procurement is underway to source services from OEMs at Tutuka, Majuba, Kendal and Kusile.
• The process of excluding transmission infrastructure from the requirement to obtain environmental authorisation country wide in areas of low & medium environmental sensitivity has been completed.
• NATJOINTS is coordinating the work of multiple agencies to address sabotage, theft and fraud at Eskom. Some arrests have been made, with progress driven by increased deployment of private security by Eskom.
World Economic Forum – Davos, Switzerland
On Tuesday 17 January 2023, President Ramaphosa will lead a delegation of Ministers and South African captains of industry to Davos, Switzerland, where he will participate at the World Economic Forum (WEF) events, in which he will lead the promotion of South Africa as an investment destination of choice.
This year’s theme is "Cooperation in a fragmented world”. The President will be accompanied by Ministers Pandor, Gondongwana, Patel, and Kubayi.
The South African delegation to WEF will add the country’s voice to discussions about global issues, with the overall aim to position the South Africa as a competitive business destination.
President Ramaphosa will participate in the Dialogue on Economics of Women’s Health, the Annual Welcome Dinner hosted Prof Klaus and Hilde Schwab, the dinner brings together heads of state, government and international organizations as well as members of the Board of Trustees, the International Business Council and Strategic Partners.
The President will also form part of the Annual Breakfast Meeting of the African Heads of State/Government entitled Africa Continental Free Trade Area. The AfCFTA is the largest free trade area in the world, by area and number of participating countries.
Once fully implemented, it will be the fifth-largest economy in the world, with the potential to have a combined GDP of more than $3.4 trillion. The engagement at WEF will explore how public-private partnerships can support the implementation of the AfCFTA.
The President will also attend the annual meeting on Investing on Infrastructure for Resilience. Details on bilateral meetings will be provided in due course.
FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT
Monday, 12 December 2022
WE FACE THE NEW YEAR WITH CONFIDENCE AND DETERMINATION
Fellow South Africans,
As 2022 draws to a close, we can reflect on a tumultuous year. Like for many people around the world, this has been a tough year for many South Africans.
In the first half of the year, we experienced devastating floods in parts of KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and North West. The Russia-Ukraine conflict sent shockwaves through global energy and food markets, leading to supply chain disruptions and rising prices that continue to be keenly felt, including in South Africa. The energy crisis has caused misery for South African households and businesses.
The events of the last few years continue to cast a long shadow, with the global COVID-19 pandemic severely damaging an already struggling economy and public unrest causing loss of human life and livelihoods.
With this difficult year coming to an end and several challenges still not resolved, we need to keep closely focused on what needs to be done to make next year better.
But we have good reason to be believe things are getting better. Our great country will rise above adversity, as it has done so many times in the past.
Two years ago, when we confronted the fear and uncertainty of COVID-19, I said that if we act decisively and together, the pandemic will pass. It has indeed passed, as will the current misfortunes we are experiencing.
We are more than capable of bringing about the recovery our country needs.
The recovery of our economy and society is underway.
Despite the electricity challenges, the economy is recording growth. In the third quarter of this year real GDP grew by 1.6%, and the size of the economy now exceeds pre-pandemic levels. Major industries and sources of job creation such as agriculture, transportation, construction and finance recorded increased economic output. Exports increased by 4.2% per cent.
Jobs are being created again. While we haven’t recovered all the jobs lost to the pandemic around 1.5 million new jobs were created in the last year.
A few months ago, the Presidential Employment Stimulus reached a one million participants. More than 3 million youth are registered on the innovative SAYouth.mobi platform that connects them with prospective employers. We are revitalising the National Youth Service to create work opportunities for 50,000 young people.
For more than a decade, South Africa has been confronted with a shortage of electricity, with load shedding now a daily reality. Over the last year we have taken urgent steps to remedy this dire situation by significantly and rapidly increasing the construction of new generating capacity.
We have accelerated the procurement of renewable energy and have removed many of the regulatory hurdles to greater private investment in embedded generation. There is now a significant pipeline of embedded generation projects that are preparing for construction. We are working closely with Eskom to improve the performance of their fleet of power stations.
We are undertaking far-reaching reforms to improve the capacity and competitiveness of railways and ports, to open up our telecommunications industry and to improve the supply and pricing of water.
This year has seen several corruption-related cases enrolled in our courts and some convictions have been secured. Multi-disciplinary units that bring together a range of law enforcement agencies are identifying more implicated individuals and entities and preparing cases against them.
After close to four years, the State Capture Commission has concluded its work and presented its final reports to the President. I have submitted the government’s detailed implementation plan of the commission’s recommendations to Parliament.
These are by no means the only difficulties we face. Crime, gender-based violence, poverty and hunger continue to cause great misery.
And yet we should not make light of the change that is taking place in our country. We are seeing the pride of young people who would otherwise be unemployed being restored as they work as education assistants, conservationists and small-scale farmers.
We are seeing commuters getting onto new trains to ferry them to work on lines that were closed for years.
We are seeing new factories being built and existing ones being expanded by investors who see this country as a favourable place to do business.
The road to recovery and to building a better South Africa will be a long one. But we will get there if we act decisively and we act together.
We will overcome our current challenges as surely as we did the pandemic that threatened to lay waste to our nation.
Misfortune has tested us over the past year, but these hard times have brought to the fore once more the traits for which we are known as South Africans.
We are a people of optimism, even as we brace against harsh winds. We are a people who love our country and wish for its success. We are a nation that perseveres, and that never gives up.
With best regards,
President Cyril Ramaphosa