10 July 2025 | National Assembly

Chairperson, Honourable Members, People of South Africa

The ANC rises in support of Budget Vote 10 – the Department of Electricity and Energy. Our point of departure must be the NDP, which calls for a secure, affordable, and sustainable electricity supply to power inclusive economic growth and improve living standards. This vision remains our north star.

The ANC does not treat energy as a commodity for the few – it is a public good, a lever for economic transformation, a developmental tool, and a constitutional imperative.

The reality is that South Africa’s energy sector is capital-intensive, high-volume, and low-margin – meaning it requires detailed, long-term planning and sustained investment to balance supply and demand, while expanding generation, transmission and distribution capacity.

The establishment of a dedicated Ministry and Department for Electricity and Energy was therefore not a symbolic change. It is about strategically focusing on state capacity to resolve the energy crisis and centre South Africa’s inclusive growth and just transition.

1. Stabilising Supply and Ending Load Shedding: Action Over Rhetoric

Chairperson, let us not be misled – load shedding has dwindled because of the deliberate, disciplined implementation of:

• The Government’s 9-point plan, and
• Eskom’s 6-point maintenance drive.
• A government focused on fixing, not finger-pointing.

This is not theory – it’s the real work of rebuilding capacity after state capture, neglect, and sabotage (by the same people who are jumping up)

This budget backs that recovery with concrete investment and reform. It prioritises:

• R13.2 billion over the MTEF for the Integrated National Electrification Programme (INEP) – the backbone of grid expansion and universal access;
• Eskom’s recovery and restructuring, including the early return of over 800 MW to the grid through Medupi Unit 4, brought online ahead of schedule;
• Scaling up renewables, embedded generation, and energy storage, through policy reform and targeted investment;
• And implementation of the Electricity Regulation Amendment Act of 2024, which enables regulated private participation in electricity generation – creating a competitive but controlled market, protected from profiteering and inequality.

Let us be clear: this is not neoliberal deregulation. This is managed reform in the public interest, led by a developmental state with its
priorities intact.

This is what the ANC-led government is doing – not playing politics with the crisis, but solving it.

Under Minister Ramokgopa’s leadership, we’re seeing green shoots of progress:

• Planned maintenance has increased significantly – with over 6,000 MW currently under maintenance;
• Recovery efforts at Kusile and Medupi are accelerating;
• The Energy Action Plan is moving with urgency.
  This budget supports a war-room approach, not only to bring a final end to load shedding but to ensure long-term energy sovereignty in our country.

1. Electricity Pricing: Relief for the People, Not Profits for the Few

Chairperson, since 1994, electricity prices have surged by 800% – and by 190% since 2014 alone. These increases far outpace inflation and are pushing working-class and poor households into energy poverty.

This is not just unsustainable – it is economically destructive and morally indefensible.

What’s worse, in DA-run municipalities, the crisis is amplified. Residents face double-charging – first by Eskom, and again through exorbitant municipal markups and surcharges that have nothing to do with actual supply costs.
This is daylight robbery disguised as service delivery.

While the DA shouts about affordability in Parliament, their governments are bleeding the poor at local level.

They speak of market efficiency, but the only thing they’ve made efficient is extracting more from those with the least.

The ANC, on the other hand, is calling for urgent and systemic reform:

• A full review of the tariff-setting model, including the CAPM formula, which inflates costs without benchmarking for public benefit.
• A revision of the 50 kW free basic electricity subsidy – which no longer meet real household needs.
• Full utilisation of the R10 billion indigent grant, of which only R2 billion is currently reaching the people.
• A serious look at municipal surcharges that double-bill working-class households.
• And a pricing system that reflects not just cost recovery, but social justice.

NERSA must stop being a spectator. It must regulate in the public interest.

Electricity is not a luxury. It is a necessity – and the ANC will not allow it to become a debt trap for the poor while municipalities chase surpluses.

3. Accelerating the Just Energy Transition – Without Leaving Workers Behind

Chairperson, the ANC rejects any notion of an energy transition that deepens inequality or replicates the injustices of our past.

A just transition must mean exactly that:

• Not one that is extractive, foreign-owned, or elite-driven,
• But one that puts workers, mining communities, youth, and township economies at the centre.

This budget funds that vision with targeted investment and structural reform. It supports:

• Local manufacturing in the renewables value chain to create jobs and drive industrialisation;
• The development of a green hydrogen economy as a new industrial pillar;
• Reskilling and social support programmes in coal-dependent provinces like Mpumalanga, where communities must not be left behind;
• And clean energy grants to municipalities and public enterprises to localise delivery and diversify energy access.

This is not window-dressing – it is structural economic transformation with a developmental core.

We welcome additional key investments that reinforce this transition:

• The Battery Energy Storage IPP Programme, critical for grid stability and integrating more renewable energy, particularly during peak demand;
• Progress on refurbishing the Koeberg nuclear power station, ensuring reliable baseload power as part of our diversified energy mix;
• And the Department’s commitment to finalising a policy and financial plan for future nuclear development, in partnership with Eskom, NECSA, and NRWDI – but not the NNR, whose independence as a safety regulator must remain intact in line with international standards.

Let us be clear:

This is not just about megawatts. It is about economic justice.

We are building an energy future that is green, publicly driven, worker-sensitive, and industrially strategic.

The ANC will not allow coal towns to become ghost towns, nor allow foreign capital to dictate the terms of our transition.

This is our transition. Our economy. Our future.

4. The Gas Cliff – and the Urgent Need for a Master Plan

South Africa faces a looming gas cliff due to the decline of Pande and Temane fields.

We currently:

• Have no domestic infrastructure for gas importation or distribution,
• Lack anchor industrial customers to achieve economies of scale,
• And have no national gas price to guide investment or planning.

The Department must finalise the Gas Master Plan – and in doing so:

• Balance local gas development and strategic imports,
• Avoid stranded infrastructure from competing ports like Maputo, Richards Bay and Saldanha,
• And ensure that the state is not saddled with unviable terminals the private sector will walk away from.

This is about economic sovereignty, fiscal prudence, and industrial strategy.

5. Building State Capacity and Developmental Accountability

Chairperson, the ANC has always maintained: transformation requires a capable state – not a hollowed-out one.

We welcome the strides made by the Department of Electricity and Energy and its entities – Eskom, NECSA, SANEDI, and NRWDI – in rebuilding the foundations of effective governance. These entities have shown:

• Improved audit outcomes,
• Strengthened financial controls, and
• Better corporate governance.

But good governance must now deliver developmental results – not just clean audits.

It must translate into:

• Inclusive economic development,
• Skills development for young people, and
• Job creation through localisation and infrastructure rollout.

This budget reflects the ANC’s commitment to building that state capacity:

• A 9.7% increase in departmental spending, rising to R6.7 billion;
• The expansion of technical staff from 359 to 414 employees, strengthening in-house expertise;
• And the establishment of a dedicated energy policy, planning, and modelling unit to support evidence-based decisions – including the
  Integrated Resource Plan (IRP 2025) and the long-awaited Gas Master Plan.

Crucially, oversight of Eskom now sits firmly within this Department – ending years of confusion and fragmentation between ministries.

This structural clarity enhances governance, financial stability, and public accountability.

Chairperson, when state institutions work – the people benefit.

The ANC supports this budget because it strengthens the state’s ability to plan, build, deliver, and transform.

6. Strategic Energy Investment: Green Hydrogen and Clean Baseload Power

Chairperson, South Africa’s energy future cannot be left to market whims or ideological slogans. It must be strategic, sovereign, and industrially driven.

That is why this budget prioritises two critical pillars:

Green hydrogen and nuclear infrastructure – both essential to a balanced, secure, and job-creating energy mix.

Green hydrogen presents a transformative opportunity to:

• Decarbonise hard-to-electrify sectors like steel, ammonia, and shipping;
• Build a new industrial base rooted in green technologies; and
• Position South Africa as a global exporter of clean energy.

To realise this, we must accelerate:

• Research and localisation of technologies;
• Public-private partnerships to unlock investment; and
• The long-term inclusion of green hydrogen in our national energy planning frameworks.

Simultaneously, Programme 4 of the Department receives a 41% increase – R1.5 billion – directed at nuclear safety, non-proliferation, and the multipurpose reactor programme under NECSA.

Why? Because energy security demands clean baseload power – and nuclear remains essential to that equation. It delivers:

• Low-emission, reliable power;
• Long-term cost stability; and
• Protection from global energy market volatility.

The ANC reaffirms its support for a diversified energy mix – one that includes nuclear, gas, solar, wind, hydro, and green hydrogen – to reduce emissions, drive industrialisation, and protect our energy sovereignty.

This is not just a climate transition – it’s a developmental revolution.

And this budget puts us on that path.

7. Energy Democracy: Power to the People – Not Profit

Chairperson, the ANC refuses to manage energy poverty – we are here to end it.

For too long, energy has been controlled by monopolies, priced for the elite, and withheld from the poor. The energy transition cannot be another chapter of exclusion, where corporations profit while the majority sit in the dark.

That is why the ANC is not just talking energy democracy – we are building it.

We are:

• Rolling out community-owned renewable projects, where working-class people are co-owners, not spectators;
• Driving public-benefit IPPs, that put people before profit;
• Deploying microgrids in rural communities, ensuring that no village, no farm, and no informal settlement is left behind;
• And launching a bold redistribution of energy wealth – with a focus on townships, rural areas, and informal settlements, where energy poverty is still a daily injustice.

This is not theoretical. It is backed by this budget.

The Integrated National Electrification Programme (INEP) is allocated R4.3 billion – the largest share of this budget – to expand access, restore dignity, and liberate communities from structural darkness.

This is how we are breaking the chains of energy apartheid.

This is how we are building a people-powered energy future.

We will not privatise the wind. We will not commercialise the sun. And we will not let the poor pay the price of going green.

The ANC is not on the sidelines – we are on the ground, electrifying schools, lighting up homes, and fighting for a just transition that serves the many, not the few.

This is energy democracy – and the ANC is delivering it in real time.

8. Markets Must Not Be Left to Themselves

South Africa’s electricity demand is larger than the entire SADC region combined, but unlike the US, China, or India, we are not a self-contained or deregulated market.

Even in the US, only a few states have fully deregulated electricity markets. Most still operate under regulated systems, with a single utility managing generation, transmission and distribution. Why? Because unregulated energy markets fail – they drive up prices, reduce access, and deepen inequality.

In a country like ours – with historical backlogs and spatial injustice – regulation is not optional, it is essential.

• We must maintain a single national price.
• We must enable cross-subsidisation for poor and rural communities.
• We must prevent a market that simply delivers cheap electricity to industrial centres while leaving the periphery in the dark – or with unaffordable bills.

1. To the Opposition: Enough With the Noise

DA:

• You claim to defend the consumer, yet your municipalities slap surcharges on indigent households. You call for competition but oppose the very regulations that would protect access and affordability. Your “solutions” are pure privatisation – with no protection.
• Your calls for privatisation would leave rural households in the dark. You cry foul about prices – yet your municipalities add surcharges on top of Eskom bills. You defend the market – but oppose the very regulation that prevents price gouging.

EFF

• You shout “nationalise” but offer no credible plan to fund or operate that nationalisation. Energy systems cannot run on slogans. They need engineers, governance, and hard
• You romanticise nationalisation but offer no plan for funding, maintenance, or transition. The EFF wants slogans, not substations. We want solutions – and the lights on.
• Nationalise what? With what money? Your slogans are loud, but your silence on how to fund and operate complex infrastructure is deafening.

MKP

• You were silent during state capture and Eskom looting. Now you shout from the sidelines, offering no ideas – only revisionist rage.
• You were silent when Eskom was being looted. Now you shout from the backbenches with no plan, no policy, and no track record – just recycled rage and populist nostalgia. The people deserve better than camouflage cosplay.
• You want to govern energy but have no policy, no plan, and no track record. Your leaders watched Eskom being looted and said nothing. Now you sell anger to the people you helped betray.

Conclusion: Power to the People, Not to Profit

Chairperson, this is not a budget of convenience – it is a budget of conviction.

It does not serve markets. It serves the majority. It does not speak the language of privatisation or profiteering – it speaks the language of justice, dignity, and development.

This is a budget that:

• Electrifies the homes of the poor and working class,
• Fuels industrialisation through gas, green hydrogen and nuclear energy,
• Puts regulation before exploitation,
• And places the needs of the people before the greed of the few.

This is the ANC’s vision: an energy future that is publicly led, worker-powered, climate-ready, and people-driven.

We reject the chaos of deregulation, the slogans of opportunists, and the actions of those state capturers who looted Eskom for their greed.

To the people of South Africa:

We will not allow your homes, your clinics, your classrooms or your businesses to sit in the dark.

We will not surrender our energy future to privatisers, populists, or profiteers.

We will build an energy system that is publicly led, justly priced, and democratically governed.

The ANC supports this budget because it does what others only promise:

It delivers power – real power – to the people.

The future is bright and it is ours.

I thank you.