What the new Cabinet could mean for SA’s energy and environment future

The government of national unity has introduced a new Cabinet, bringing significant changes with it. What could some of these shifts hold for SA’s energy and environmental policies? Julia Evans takes a look.

On Sunday night, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a new Cabinet, to accommodate the formation of the government of national unity (GNU). Considering the potential impacts on SA’s energy and environmental imperatives, the changes in the ministries of energy, the environment and water are of particular interest.

Energy portfolio

The energy portfolio has moved from Gwede Mantashe’s hands (the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy he headed is now the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources) to Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, who is now the minister of both electricity and energy.

“It is good to see energy and electricity as a distinct portfolio,” said Harald Winkler, a professor at UCT’s School of Economics. “While progress [was] made under Minister Ramokgopa on fixing the problems in Eskom that underlie load shedding, the efforts by the technical teams need to be sustained so that we get through winter and resolve the problems permanently.”

Energy analyst and electrical engineer Chris Yelland welcomed the move.

“I think the performance of Gwede Mantashe as minister of mineral resources and energy was underwhelming,” he said, adding that Mantashe had a lot on his plate as minister of minerals and energy, while also being chairperson of the ANC.

“When it comes to electricity, I think Mantashe singularly failed, to the extent that the President decided to appoint a minister of electricity to lead the President’s emergency energy plan to end load shedding fast and to head the National Energy Crisis Committee (Necom).”

Yelland said Ramokgopa had lived up to the challenge, leading Necom, mobilising Eskom, business, the private sector, the residential sector and industry — and most significantly, bringing load shedding to an end.

“Minister Ramokgopa has been the face of the task to end load shedding and is being rewarded with high political office for the results achieved. I think it’s a good thing — this is democracy at work.”

Yelland believes the new Department of Electricity and Energy needs to rework and finalise the outdated Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for electricity, the national planning framework that outlines SA’s long-term electricity supply and demand goals. The long-awaited 2023 Draft IRP for electricity came out at the end of 2023 for public comment, but was roundly criticised, with experts and stakeholders decrying it as “woefully inadequate”.

Read more in Daily Maverick: ‘A shoddy piece of work’ — experts decry South Africa’s new blueprint for energy

Yelland noted that the new ministry also needed to prepare and publish a national Integrated Energy Plan (IEP), coordinating demand and supply of all primary energy resources and energy carriers, and not just electricity. 

An approved IEP for South Africa has never been published before, despite being referred to in Section 6 of the National Energy Act of 2008. 

A Government Gazette from April 2023 announced that Section 6 of the National Energy Act would come into effect on 30 March 2024, meaning that legally, Ramokgopa needs to publish the first IEP by 31 March 2025.

Yelland said: “South Africa is a country without an energy or electricity plan — we don’t have an IEP, and we don’t have an updated IRP.”

New environment minister

Barbara Creecy has been replaced as minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment by the DA’s Dion George.

George was a member of Parliament from 2008 to 2015 and from 2018 to now. He served as shadow minister of finance and party whip in the National Assembly and as a trustee of the Political Office-Bearers’ Pension Fund. 

He has a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in Finance and Investment from Wits University, and a Doctor of Business Leadership degree from Unisa.

His background in finance made his appointment as environment minister a surprise, although his recent role as the head of the DA’s Knysna constituency saw him involved in water and environmental issues.

Read full article in Daily Maverick.

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