The high price of energy is perpetuating energy poverty. This is the view of Minister of Energy Gwede Mantashe.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the week-long Africa Energy Indaba in Cape Town.
Minister Mantashe says there is no universal access to energy. He says African economies are beset with intermittent electricity supply and high tariffs.
Mantashe says these impact adversely on industrial production and on the ability of the poor to improve their well-being.
Responding to the National Energy Regulator’s (Nersa) recent approval of a 9% tariff increase for Eskom, Mantashe says Nersa’s formula for determining the price of electricity is backward.
Minister Gwede Mantashe said the government is also looking into how the petrol price is calculated:
Mantashe says uncertainties in the global supply and security of petroleum resources provide greater resolve for African countries, like South Africa, to own refinery infrastructure capacity.
BP and Shell have said they would shut their joint-venture, the South African Petroleum Refineries operations indefinitely.
The minister says there may be an appetite from the government to take over the facility.
The Africa Energy Indaba continues until Thursday.
