Chairperson, hon Minister Ms Dipuo Peters; hon Chairperson of the Energy Portfolio Committee, Mr Njikelana; hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers present; Members of Parliament; leadership of municipalities; our Director-General, Ms Nelisiwe Magubane, and all directors-general present; representatives of state-owned entities; invited guests; stakeholders; ladies and gentlemen; and last but not least, Team Energy ...
... umhlonishwa u-Greyling usuke akhulume kabi la ngoba ukhuluma ephakathi esiswini se-DA, i-DA isiyamngwinya. [Ubuwelewele.] Nakuba kunjalo-ke kodwa, umhlonishwa Greyling nabangane bakhe kumele bakhumbule uma bemi la ukuthi sikule nyakanyaka engaka nje- inyakanyaka efana namathumbu enkonyane - yingoba bona, ogogo babo kanye nomkhulu babo abazange bazinakekele izindawo zasemakhaya. [Ihlombe.] Yingakho namhlanje siphuma singena, sibona amahlazo. Abantu abakhulile abacishe bafike eminyakeni engama-80 noma ama- 90 bengenawo ugesi wokukhanyisa. Lokhu kungenxa yokuthi ogogo nomkhulu bakhe babezicabangela bona bodwa. [Ihlombe.] Bengabacabangeli abantu abahlala emakhaya. Empeleni kufanele ngabe ninamahloni okukhuluma kodwa ngoba niyathanda ukuvulela ngaphansi kwekhala, niyama la nivulele, nikhohlise abantu bakithi nenze sengathi nina nenza ngcono kanti anizange nenze lutho olungcono.
Ugesi ubalulekile ezimpilweni zabantu abaphilayo ezweni elithuthukayo. Ngaphandle kukagesi konke kungacishe kufinyelele kwangqingetshe. Amandla kagesi awumgogodla wawo wonke umnotho oqinile. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[... what the Hon Greyling is saying is not good, he is on the side of the DA, in fact, judging by his actions he might soon become a member of that party. He and his friends must remember, though, that it was they and their forebears who created so much trouble for us. They did not care about rural development. [Applause.] That is why we have so much to do today; we have to right the wrongs of the past. Our senior citizens who are as old as 80 to 90 years old do not have any electricity for lighting. The cause of this is that their grandfathers and grandmothers were selfish. [Applause.] They did not care about rural residents. You should be ashamed of yourselves, but you just cannot keep quiet. You stand here and talk, deceiving our people and making them believe that you can make their lives better, but in actual fact you have never done anything good for them.
It is important for the citizens of a developing country to have access to electricity. Without it no development can take place. Electrical power is the backbone of a strong economy.]
Today we are very proud of the fact that over 84% of our people have access to modern energy. [Applause.] This is a far cry from the terrible situation in 1994, when approximately only 36% of the population had access to electricity.
Icala-ke liqulwa ngofakazi. Naba ofakazi, izimeya zemikhandlu yethu, zingasukuma la zifakaze ukuthi ngempela lokhu engikushoyo kuyiqiniso, asikhulumi nje into engekho. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[No case can be tried without any witnesses. We have our witnesses here, mayors of our municipalities. They can attest to the facts that we are stating; we are not just making unfounded accusations.]
There will be those who will try and deny our achievements, but the facts speak for themselves. Let me add that we are also coming to the 15% who do not yet have electricity. These will also include the infills that the Minister spoke about.
Ngaphansi kobuholi bukaNqgonqgoshe wezaMandla, uNkosikazi u-Dipuo Peters, asiyi lapho kukhanya khona, kodwa siya ezindaweni ezingenawo ugesi. Sifike sizame ukuthuthukisa lezo zindawo, mhlawumbe yingakho laba bengasiboni nje, yingoba asiyi vele khona. [Ihlombe.] Sikwenzile lokhu entombini endala, singaqali kuyona kuphela. Le ntombi ecishe ibe neminyaka efinyelela ama-80 ngobudala sikwazile ukuyishiya imamatheka ngoba ngokokuqala ngqa empilweni yayo, isiyakwazi ukuphakamisa umunwe ichafaze inkinobho kagesi. Yona ikwenza manje lokhu, ogogo nomkhulu balaba kade bakwenza lokhu. [Uhleko]
Umbuzo uyohlala umile uthe mpo! Nanoma ningenzani noma ningama ngamakhanda izinyawo zibheke phezulu. Umbuzo uyohlala umile uthi: nina njengoba naniphethe, ugesi naniwuyisa kuphi? Iyavela-ke impendulo ukuthi nina nanifakela idlanzana labantu. Thina yingakho sinezinselela; yingoba sifinyelela kubantu abangaphezulu kwalabo nina enanibanakekela. Njengoba ngishilo ukuthi asikhulumi nje emoyeni, icala liqulwa ngofakazi. Sinomasipala engicabanga ukuthi abaholi babo bakhona khona la, ngikhuluma ngoMasipala baseDanawozi, wena ungakubiza ngokuthi yi-Dannhauser. [Uhleko.] Labo masipala bakwazile ukufinyelela kolokhu okuthiwa ... (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[Under the leadership of the Minister of Energy, Ms Dipuo Peters, we do not visit areas that are already connected to the electricity grid, but we visit those that are not. We try our best to develop such areas. Maybe that is why the opposition does not see us; we do not visit their well developed areas. [Applause.] We have brought such joy to a very old lady's life. She is about 80 years old and for the first time in her life she has electricity in her house; the grandmothers and grandfathers of these people have been doing it for a long time. [Laughter.]
My question will always remain! No matter what kind of excuse you can make, we will always ask you the same question: When you were in power, which areas did you supply with electricity? It is clear that you only catered for the minority. The challenges we are now facing are caused by the fact that we have to reach a very large number of people now as compared to what you did in the past.
As I have already mentioned to you, what we claim is always supported by evidence; we have our witnesses here to attest to that fact. Some municipalities have their representatives amongst us, amongst them the Danawozi Municipality which you might know as Dannhauser. [Laughter.] Those municipalities have managed to achieve what is known as ...]
... universal access. [Applause.] For the first time in history ...
... bakwazile ukuthi ngemizamo yomnyango kanye nohulumeni bakwazi ukwenza ukuthi bonke abantu endaweni yaseDanawozi bakwazi ukukhanyisa ugesi. Akukaze kwenzeke lokho ngaphambili. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[... the department and government have managed to roll out the supply of electricity to all the people of Dannhauser. This is the first time in history that has ever happened.]
Last year we hosted the Electricity Indaba, where shortcomings were identified in the current Integrated National Electrification Programme. In addressing these challenges, we have introduced the Household Electrification Strategy.
The key focus areas of this strategy include the electrification master plan based on the least-cost approach that combines grid and high-quality nongrid solutions to support high-backlog, low-delivering municipalities.
Ngiyethemba-ke ukuthi abaholi bomasipala abakhona la bazolalelisisa kahle ukuze bangasidonsi ngamabhantshi uma sihamba besifuna ugesi. Sifuna balalele kahle ukuthi kuzokwenzeka kanjani. Lolu hlelo engikhuluma ngalo akulona uhlelo esizoluqala phansi, kodwa sithuthukisa uhlelo oluvele lukhona. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[I hope that the local government officials present here will listen, to what we are going to say. When we leave we do not want them to call us aside and ask us about the supply of electricity to their localities. We want them to be clear about what the procedure will be. The programme I am talking about is not a new one, but we are developing the one we already have in place.]
The Department of Energy, together with the Development Bank of Southern Africa, DBSA, will continue with implementing the agreement to accelerate the electrification programme in our country. The so-called front-end loading applies to municipalities with large electrification backlogs, which in turn will apply to the DBSA for funding. The bank will conduct bank credit assessments and we will only support bank-approved applications that are within the Integrated National Electrification Programme.
Kuzobalulela-ke ukuthi imikhandlu yethu iqinisekise ukuthi amabhuku ayo kanye nokwenza kwabo izinto kumi ngomumo ukuze bakwazi ukuhlomula kulo hlelo lwethu. [I would advise all councils to have their books and all of their business in order so they can benefit from the programme.]
We must also acknowledge the support of our international partners in supporting our programme. Assistance has been received from the International Finance Corporation, which is part of the World Bank group, in the development of the new household electrification strategy.
Nizokhumbula nalapho ukuthi thina sisodwa njengohulumeni ngeke sikwazi ukumelana nemisebenzi esilele emuva ebese ngiyibalile. Yingakho sidinga abantu abafana no-DBSA kanye neBhange Lomhlaba ukuthi basilekelele lapho thina singakwazi ukufinyelela khona. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[You will note that we as the government cannot carry out all the tasks that were left undone, as I have already mentioned. That is why we need institutions like the DBSA and the World Bank to lend a helping hand so that we can achieve more than we could on our own.]
As we enter the winter period, we have to be more vigilant about the risk posed by the increasing electricity demand to an extent beyond our supply capability.
Kuzodingeka ukuthi sikuqaphele lokho. Akuyona into okufuneka ukuthi sime la njengo-Greyling, sisine ngayo njengoba besina nje. Basinela ukuthi kungenzeka ukuthi kube mnyama. Lokho kuyabajabulisa bona. Engingakutholi kahle ukuthi uma ugesi ungahle ucime, angithi nabo ... [Ubuwelewele.] (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[We will have to be careful about that. We should not make fun of it as the likes of Greyling do. They are happy about the possibility of the shortage of our electricity supply. What I do not understand is why that would make them happy when power outages also ... [Interjections.]]