Chairperson, we commend the department for the fact that it has an Integrated Resource Plan spanning over 20 years. However, it would be much more helpful if the information on the department's performance in terms of this plan could be easily available in the public domain. A total amount R47 billion in investments will hopefully cause significant reforms in attempts to meet the increasing demand for power. Of course, the country is also facing many challenges, unemployment being one of the major ones, so such massive investments should therefore not just address one issue, but also impact on others. It would be interesting to know how many jobs have been created through the projects aimed at addressing power demands and what has been done to address skills shortages in these fields, today and for the future.
We would like to know whether we have capacity to deliver world class renewable energy assets which will in turn attract more investments and jobs. No doubt the clich that within a crisis lies an opportunity rings particularly true in South Africa's context, as the energy shortages we are experiencing are making it even clearer that our current resources are not coping and the need to broaden energy supplies has become imminent and urgent.
However, the disappointment is in the slowness of pace with which the Medupi plant is moving and all the controversy that it is immersed in. We can only hope that in the end it will come through on its deliverables. One thing for sure is that the economy cannot afford to lose the billions it lost in 2008, when power outages became intense.
The high tariff hikes are not making life any easier for ordinary citizens and it baffles many of us why households and ordinary citizenry must be penalised for Eskom's incompetence and failure to foresee that our energy supplies had dwindled and were not coping. We support the move towards building renewable energy plants as they obviously take considerably less time than big plants such as Medupi. The UCDP supports the Budget Vote. [Applause.]