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Govt achieves important milestones since establishing Operation Vulindlela: Ntshavheni

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Government says it is making progress in implementing structural reforms in the areas of energy supply, logistics network and infrastructure, digital communications, and the visa regime. The state says the primary focus remains addressing the electricity crisis and improving the efficiency of freight rail services in the country.

It says the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill – which aims to establish a competitive market in the electricity sector and support the unbundling of Eskom – has been approved by cabinet and is currently before parliament.

Government says it has achieved several important milestones since Operation Vulindlela was established in 2020, including enabling private sector investment in electricity generation.

Government’s Operation Vulindlela hailed 5 August 2022:

Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, says the goals in the electricity sector remain to reduce the frequency of load shedding and to achieve energy security in the long term.

The Eskom Debt Relief Bill was passed in the National Assembly last week, transforming the energy sector to achieve long term energy security. The Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill was approved by March 2023 and has been submitted to parliament. This bill will establish a competitive electricity market enabling multiple on a level playing field. And finally on energy reforms the Minister of Finance announced powerful tax incentives for businesses and households to invest in rooftop solar where we are now seeing a massive surge of investments.”

Discussion on efforts to resolve energy crisis in SA:


Improving country’s rail system

Ntshavheni says Transnet is working to establish a separate infrastructure manager within Transnet Freight Rail who will allow third party access to the core rail network. She says improving the country’s rail system is a major priority towards improving economic growth.

“We expect the infrastructure manager to be in place by end of October this year, partnerships with private terminal operators at the Durban peer and Nquga container terminal are expected to be in place in the following months initiated by Transnet in August 2022. This will help to improve the performance of the container terminals and crown in private sector investment and the Economic Regulation of Transport Bill.”

Minister Ntshavheni says legislative reforms are on track to create a transport economic regulator, to reform the electricity sector and to establish a National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency.

“The progress made in the last two years has been notable in several areas in the progress report, the number of complete reforms has risen from 3 to 11 while a further 14 reforms are on track or progressing well for their set target dates. The report demonstrates that over half of the reforms are on track to be complete in the next 12 months.”

Ntshavheni says cabinet has approved a final switch-off date of analogue transmission which will be gazetted by the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies in due course.

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