ELECTRICITY REGULATION AMENDMENT BILL: NCOP COMMITTEE CALLS FOR INPUT

ELECTRICITY REGULATION AMENDMENT BILL: NCOP COMMITTEE CALLS FOR INPUT

• 17 March 2024
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

Please note: On 19 March 2024, the NCOP’s Land Reform, Environment, and Mineral Resources & Energy Committee issued a notice calling for input by 29 April 2024 on the Bill’s ‘B’ version. 

As a section 76 piece of legislation with implications for the provinces, the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill now before the NCOP must be subjected to a robust public participation process under the auspices of each provincial legislature.

The NCOP’s pre-May elections programme having been revised to enable that House’s committees to continue working until 3 May 2024, will the Bill’s provincial consultation process be fast tracked with the aim of passing it before the NCOP rises on 21 May 2024?

Tabled in August 2023, among other things Bill provides for ‘an open market platform that will allow for competitive electricity trading’. To that end, once passed, enacted and in force, it will:

• establish a Transmission System Operator SOC Ltd (prescribing its duties, powers and functions)
• assign those duties, powers and functions to a National Transmission Company South Africa SOC Ltd, and
• strengthen the role of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to ‘include powers to license entities that will implement the competitive market and have regulatory oversight during transitioning to a competitive market’.

This is according to a speech delivered in the National Assembly on 14 March 2024 by Mineral Resources & Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe during the Bill’s second reading. At the time, among other things, the Minister said the Bill is ‘in line with electricity reforms’ to which President Cyril Ramaphosa committed government in 2020 under the Operation Vulindlela initiative.

In the Minister’s view, once passed, enacted and operationalised the Bill will ‘not only give effect to Eskom unbundling reforms, but … will also encourage private sector participation in the electricity industry’.

In a media statement issued by the National Assembly’ Mineral Resources & Energy Committee, its chair Sahlulele Luzipo is quoted as having expressed expectations. In addition, the statement draws attention to provisions in the Bill criminalising ‘the unlawful destruction and damage of electricity infrastructure inclusive of transmission, distribution or generation equipment’. Luzipo apparently believes this will ‘ensure that cable theft and unlawful electricity damage … are decisively addressed’.

• Bill’s ‘B’ version
• parliamentary papers confirming the National Assembly decision
• Minister’s speech
• committee media statement
• revised NCOP programme

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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