The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has come out in support of what it calls President Zuma’s “commitment to long-term energy planning and greening industrial policy” as outlined in the president’s State of the Nation address last Thursday.

Morné du Plessis, CEO of WWF, says, “South Africa cannot achieve the bold and exemplary commitments it made under the Copenhagen Accord without the transformation of its domestic energy economy. This requires, firstly, integrated energy planning, taking into account electricity supply, liquid fuels, direct fuel use by industry and the demand-side sectors of the energy economy.”

“Secondly, it demands a transformed institutional environment which allows for the participation of clean electricity suppliers in a market currently dominated by Eskom and coal.”

“Thirdly, it requires an industrial and green jobs strategy which supports the skills and factories for a truly South African energy revolution.”

Meanwhile, Minister in the Presidency for Monitoring and Evaluation, Collins Chabane, announced on Friday that government is aiming to reduce the energy dependence on Eskom by 10%. The three-year target plan aims to have 10% of the country's electricity supply arising from independent power producers (IPPs).

In a television interview with SABC on Sunday night, President Zuma referred to Eskom as both a "player and referee" in South Africa's energy sector.

"We are creating a situation that in this area of energy which is so important that a player must come in and participate so we don't have Eskom doing everything," said Zuma.

He said if Eskom was allowed to dominate the energy sector, tariff increases would become a regular feature. Zuma implied that there needed to be vigorous competition in the sector to avoid situations like this.

However, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said it remained opposed to the suggestion that privatisation had a role to play in the electricity generating sector, through the participation of independent power producers and an independent system operator.

"Cosatu remains convinced that moves towards privatisation will ultimately wreck a crucial public national service and we shall continue to campaign vigorously to prevent the sell-off of a vital public asset," the union said in a statement.

Buanews, SAGN & Engineeringnews