Deputy Chairperson, I will start with the important things first. The rest will come at the end.
Let me also add my voice and that of KwaZulu-Natal in paying tribute to Mama Sisulu, the selfless volunteer. If you had wanted a volunteer, you would indeed have looked at her. She was a hard worker and leader who talked less and did more. May her soul rest in peace.
Let me also state that the ANC supports this Budget Vote. We are debating this Budget Vote today during a month known as Youth Month. Let us also pay our respects to all the fallen young lions and young people who led other young people, such as Tsietsi Mashinini, Peter Mokaba, and all the others, including Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu and Anton Lembede.
Since it is June, Youth Month, I would also like to honour all those young lions of the 1976 generation and the youth of the 1990s, such as Malusi Gigaba, Fikile Mbalula, Lulu Johnson and, of course, Dipuo Peters and Thandi Tobias-Pokolo. All of them are now dedicated leaders in the ANC and are in government.
We salute you all for laying that foundation and facing the full might of the past oppressive system of apartheid and Bantu education.
It is highly appreciated that the Department of Energy's policy is based on the following key objectives: attaining universal access to energy by 2014, which also talks to the Millennium Development Goals; providing accessible, affordable and reliable energy, especially to the poor; and securing adequate supplies of affordable energy for continued economic growth and development, etc.
Among other things, the 2007 ANC conference in Polokwane resolved the following, in Resolution 2.11:
Ensuring a security of supply of energy resources, and pursuing an energy mix that includes clean and renewable sources to meet the demands of our fast-growing economy ...
Our country needs to grow the economy so that more decent jobs can be created. KwaZulu-Natal is a province which has some low-cost coal deposits. Currently, coal is being mined at KwaSomkhele, in Mtubatuba.
There are also many inactive mines in the northern part of KwaZulu-Natal, in the Newcastle, Glencoe and Dundee areas, where communities, albeit at their own risk, go back to those mines to get coal for energy.
Since there are few or no economic activities in those areas, it would benefit KwaZulu-Natal if more funds were made available for this mining, so that communities do not endanger their lives.
Last year there was an energy summit here in Parliament. It was clear from the issues raised that we were not moving with as much speed as anticipated to transform this sector. Entry to this sector for the previously disadvantaged is very difficult. Those who enter the industry find it very hard to progress.
It is, therefore, obvious that the department needs to intervene, even by regulations, or any other means, to assist the previously disadvantaged. In most cases, the department will say that it does not deal with funding and so on, but we think it needs to intervene in one way or another.
With regard to renewable energy, a new sugar processing facility at Makhathini Flats in Jozini in KwaZulu-Natal was built in 2009. This project aims to produce ethanol and other sugar by-products from raw sugar cane. The challenge is how the department would assist in the sustainability of that project.
The department has also identified biomass as one of the easiest and quickest sources of renewable energy that can contribute to its targets. How then do we compel industries, such as pulp and paper mills and sugar refineries, to use biomass, whether by regulation, or otherwise?
The Baseline Study on Hydropower in South Africa concluded that the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are endowed with the best potential for developing small - that is, less than 10 MW - hydropower plants. When is KwaZulu-Natal going to have this? I know for a fact that the Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme, which has 1 332 MW in Van Reenen in KwaZulu-Natal, is being constructed. Are we going to meet the operational deadline of 2013 with Ingula?
The hon Minister spoke about the integrated energy centres. Their main objective is to bring affordable and sustainable energy services closer to poor communities. Underlying this is a strong social responsibility drive aimed at poverty alleviation, job creation and capacity-building. The challenge would be to see how many of these centres have been operational from 2009 to date.
The rest that were mentioned were supposed to be there by 2009. I know that the Minister only mentioned one, which is in the most populous province, that is KwaZulu-Natal, somewhere in Van Reenen.
In line with the January 8 Statement of 2011 and the state of the nation address, President J G Zuma actually said that each and every department and their entities would be required to create decent jobs. I am sure that KwaZulu-Natal would be interested to know how many jobs the department and its entities plan to create, especially in that province.
On the issue of energy as a resource and a demand in rural communities, I want to give this example. I stay in Gingindlovu and my constituency is Nkandla. In my home town, we have 14 huts and I know of a homestead in Thalane in Ward 4 in Nkandla which has 32 huts.
The head of that homestead is in a polygamous marriage. There is no electricity. All these huts rely on candles. A packet of candles costs between R13 and R15 each. If you multiply R13 by 32 huts, it equals R416 per day, and if you multiply R13 by 14, it equals R182 per day.
That is real life in the rural areas where people need these kinds of services. So the sooner we move with speed with the electrification programme, the better; it will ease the burden of the poor.
Lastly, with regard to energy and climate change, one only hopes that the mitigation activities of the department on greenhouse gas will yield positive results. We know that South Africa emits more than 400 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. Informed by the usage depending on fossil fuels for energy generation, we are challenged to proactively move the economy towards becoming less carbon intensive.
On that note, KwaZulu-Natal is waiting for the department, all the people of South Africa and the entire world to attend the climate change conference in Durban later this year. See you in Durban, eThekwini! The ANC supports the Budget Vote. [Applause.]