Hon Speaker, over the past few years Eskom has been managing a very delicate electricity supply system. We have undertaken regular communication with the people of South Africa to brief them about the state of the system, particularly the demand and supply balance. In light of the above, Eskom declared a power emergency at 6 o'clock this morning. At 8 o'clock, they indicated that rotational load shedding will be implemented. The reasons for the declaration are as follows.
Firstly, over the past week, Eskom depleted its dry coal stockpiles at some power stations due to the rainy weather conditions. This contributed to severe system constraints due to lower power output as a result of wet and poor quality coal.
Secondly, last night Eskom lost three units at Kendal Power Station in Mpumalanga and also had to reduce output at other power stations, particularly Duvha, because of a conveyor belt which is under construction following a fire in December 2013.
In addition, dam levels are low at the Drakensberg and the Palmiet Pump Storage Power Stations. These power stations act as reserves during peak times. Owing to the constraints, they were used beyond the peak times, hence the low reserves at the dams. This was exacerbated by the loss of imports via the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, the Zimbabwean electricity utility.
After all reserves were used and after a reduction by key industrial customers at 8 o'clock this morning, an additional reduction in demand of about 3 000 megawatt was needed to balance the electricity system. To make provision for the shortfall of 3 000 megawatt, Eskom emergency protocol required that all customers, including Eskom and the municipalities, reduce their demand by 20% through rotational load shedding.
It is anticipated that the emergency will continue until after the evening peak tonight, and we will continue to manage the system. Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Since there are no further ministerial requests from the floor, that concludes ministerial responses. The Secretary will read the First Order of the day.
Hon Speaker, may I address you on the first Order of the day, just before we put, please.
Okay.
Speaker, I have a concern and I have tried to find the committee report on the Bill. I have been unable to find it. The only report that was, in fact, placed in the Announcements, Tablings, and Committee Reports, ATCs, was a very brief report in the ATCs on Thursday, 27 February, which refers to the tagging of the Property Valuation Bill.
However, that does not conform to the Rules. Rule 252 says: A committee to which a Bill is referred to must deal with the Bill in accordance with Rule 249. The committee must then table a report and that report must state the joint tagging mechanism, JTM, classification, which this one states. Then it must state whether it recommends approval or rejection of the Bill, etc. It must also specify each amendment if it's an amending Bill, other than a redraft of a Bill, etc.
Now, from what I could find, we have amendments, but there is no report detailing what type of amendments those are and whether they were accepted or rejected.
So, clearly, we are going to move to a Second Reading debate without a proper report in compliance with Rule 251(3). I have a very serious concern about that, because in the past we have deferred a similar discussion on the Protection of State Information Bill as there was no report compiled and submitted by the committee. Thank you.
Speaker, may I just add on the same point. The remuneration Bill debate which was scheduled for today had to be moved to next week. The explanation offered in the Chief Whips' Forum is that the report was not placed in the Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports, ATCs. So, a precedent has already been set that, if a report is not in the ATC, the debate cannot proceed. So, I ask you to rule on this, please.
Hon member, what gets onto the programme is not decided by the Chief Whips' Forum. It's what the programme committee decides. There are two bodies here, thus I think we should get that straight.
Secondly, hon Kilian, what you are referring to is the report of the committee, but here we are having a debate. I think the debate must continue. That should not stop the debate from continuing, or starting in this case. Chief Whip, any comments on this matter?
We go ahead with the debate.
Speaker, we don't have a problem, we can continue with the debate. However, a report is outstanding. I don't know how we could actually have a debate without the report so that we can have the details of what is before the House.
I will give a ruling in due course on that matter. I will come back and give a ruling in due course, but I would like the debate to continue.