Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon members both from the left and the right, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I dedicate this speech to all our comrades throughout South Africa and beyond. If time allows, I will come back to the opposition. [Laughter.] It is once more a great moment for me to address this House, before you, Chairperson, on the developmental issues of energy in our country - South Africa - including how and why we relate to other countries on our continent.
Allow me to start by saying that the ANC supports Budget Vote 29 of the Department of Energy 2013-14. [Applause.] Let me also take this opportunity to congratulate the Department of Energy on a job well done in the area of the electrification of South Africa. According to Statistics SA's Census 2011 report - which everybody in South Africa is supposed to have, particularly Members of Parliament - 85% of households had access to electricity for lighting. The President of the Republic of South Africa, His Excellency hon J G Zuma, in his state of the nation address 2013, also alluded to this. What a remarkable achievement! [Applause.]
With your permission, hon Chairperson, in the beginning let me focus on clean energy. Last year I used this opportunity to define climate change and describe its negative impact on society as a whole if not addressed. This year, if time allows me, I wish to give the constituency of South Africa some information about what the ANC-led government did in this regard.
Through the Department of Energy, government took major steps to formulate and implement measures to adjust to and mitigate climate change. The country is committed to reducing the baseline emissions to below 34% by the year 2020 and to 42% by 2025. This commitment requires the design of a more sustainable development path, thus the national climate change response White Paper was published in 2011. Its aim is to, firstly, effectively manage the inevitable climate change impact through interventions that build and sustain South Africa's social, economic and environmental resilience, as well as emergency response capacity.
Secondly, it aims to make a fair contribution to the global effort to stabilise the greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere at a level that avoids dangerous human-induced interference with the climate system within the timeframe that enables economic, social and environmental development to proceed in a sustainable manner.
The Department of Energy, in pursuit of a low carbon development path and in response to the White Paper, has embarked on the following projects, which the Minister has alluded to, namely the solar water heaters roll-out; the renewable energy independent power producers procurement programme; and the solar park in the Northern Cape. But I want to talk about that a little.
There are two questions that come to mind. The first one is, what is a solar park? The second one is, what is its significance? The solar park is a concentrated zone of solar plants that are built in a cluster, sharing common transmission infrastructure. This multibillion rand park, earmarked for the Northern Cape, will be built over thousands of hectares and provide over 5 000 megawatts - or five gigawatts - of electricity, which will be fed into the national grid. It will be built in stages over a period of nine years and it has benefits such as massive job creation; lucrative private sector investments; local industry development; and cleaner and more secure power supply among other benefits of a large-scale park like this. The project is a partnership between government, the state-owned utility Eskom and the Clinton climate change initiative.
However, the success of government's management and sustainability of energy security of supply cannot be seen with the eye on electricity only. Petroleum and gas supply management needs attention too, therefore there is a need for energy planning in an integrated manner. This says that I must talk about the integrated energy plan which the Minister referred to.
An integrated energy plan is not a precise blueprint for the energy sector, but a framework within which specific energy development decisions can be taken. The Department of Energy is about to table a draft report, the integrated energy plan, to Cabinet and thereafter release it to the public, and later refer it back to Cabinet for adoption prior to being referred to Parliament. This process is unfolding.
Linked to that plan there is the integrated resource plan, which the Minister also spoke about. While the Minister was speaking, there was a moment when I asked myself, what is it that I will say during my turn, as the Minister has said all I would say? [Laughter.]
Listen, the integrated resource plan, which is the electricity section of the Integrated Energy Plan, was promulgated in May 2012 and outlines the required generation capacity for the period up to 2030. We think in the long term. This is work in progress and must be supported.
In order to succeed with this plan and with development around clean energy, you need research and development. One of the most important scientific institutes is now attached to the Department of Energy's state- owned enterprise, the Central Energy Fund. The South African National Energy Development Institute is a research and development organisation meant to take the Department of Energy to great heights. It is currently involved in a technology development project, working together with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR, the University of Pretoria and other relevant players. It also conducts research in the carbon capture and storage projects, working together with the South African Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage and various other responsible parties, including Sasol, the Norwegian Embassy and Eskom. The Working for Energy project is another area on which the South African National Energy Development Institute, Sanedi, focuses and it includes energy-efficient building materials, low-income housing renewable energy, etc. Have you ever heard them? These are areas that are being researched and are still to come in our lives.
Other Sanedi research and development projects include smart grid, green transport, renewable energy and energy efficiency. Working together with the relevant departments and stakeholders, they are looking forward to succeeding.
However, hon Smalle, we are fully appreciative of the challenges PetroSA faces, but we refuse to accept that they constitute a crisis. [Interjections.] We support the Minister in her endeavours to resolve these challenges and wish her every success. In my view these issues were supposed to have been left to them to handle before we came in.
Regarding the participation of PetroSA in international activities, it is very surprising to me that this matter only comes as a concern now. [Interjections.] Listen carefully, this company has been active in international activities for a very long time. To remind those who have forgotten, the 1994 elections meant that we are fully part of the universe and we should therefore participate in continental and world economic activities.
In conclusion, I want to quote the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Energy when he responded to an article by a certain Mr Donwald Pressly in Business Report on 2 May ... [Time expired.] [Applause.]