National Treasury Director-General Dr Duncan Pieterse said the national grid needs more than R100 billion of investment to expand and modernise. He said most of that money will have to come from private investors.
Pieterse was speaking to investors on Wednesday at the Old Mutual Investment Group “Tomorrow” Investment Summit in Cape Town. He gave an update on Operation Vulindlela, a joint reform programme of The Presidency and National Treasury.
He said government decisions taken this year would end century-old monopolies and open markets to competition and private investment, SAnews reported.
“That drive for new renewable energy investment continues, but the constraint is now the national grid itself, which needs more than R100 billion of investment to expand and modernise,” Pieterse said.
Pieterse said the licensing requirement for private renewable energy generators was lifted in 2022. He said this led to a surge of investment and added new capacity to the grid. He said it also helped to end the electricity crisis.
“Opening up the market also requires a level playing field, where new private generators have equal access to the grid, and a transmission and system operator that dispatches private power on competitive terms with Eskom power, so that prices come down over time,” he said.
Pieterse said the National Transmission Company of South Africa has been created as a subsidiary of Eskom. He said the next step is to make it a fully independent, state-owned Transmission System Operator. It would own the transmission assets and give all generators open access to the grid.
He said the same approach applies to splitting the ports authority from Transnet. Cabinet has approved the approach to that unbundling, he said.
“There too, opening up the market and levelling the playing field for terminal operators across our ports will help to reduce the cost of trading with the rest of the world and improve South Africa’s global competitiveness,” Pieterse said.
According to SAnews, the freight rail market has been opened to private operators. The first privately owned trains have started testing the lines.
Pieterse said government also needs a fully independent Rail Infrastructure Manager. He said this would ensure fair treatment of Transnet and privately owned operators.
On visas, Pieterse said the Electronic Travel Authorisation system was launched in August. He said it will improve tourist visa processing, and later work and study visa processing.
He said phase two of the Trusted Employer Scheme will speed up the recruitment of highly skilled workers.
On water, Pieterse said a revised pricing strategy is in place and new raw water use charges have been approved. He said work is under way to set up the National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency.
Pieterse said Transnet has issued a request for qualifications for a strategic partner for the Manganese Export Corridor. He described the project as worth billions of rand.
He said Home Affairs has unveiled a digital ID prototype. He said a data sharing system called MzansiXchange is being piloted within government.
SAnews said MzansiXchange is not a central data store. Departments keep ownership of their data and share it with other authorised entities when needed.
Source: this article is based on reporting by SAnews.gov.za. Image: GCIS via SAnews.gov.za. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Business desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Anelisa Nkuna covers business and money news for Tzaneen Voice. Anelisa reports on the rand, fuel prices, interest rates, jobs, Eskom, Transnet, farming and company results. The aim is simple: explain what the numbers mean for household budgets, small businesses and workers in South Africa.