Thank you, Chair. Hon members of Cabinet present here, hon Members of Parliament, the director-general, the executive management of the Department of Energy, state-owned entities, invited guests, business and stakeholders, I think I am tempted to say this to hon Dexter before I get into my speech: It is now very clear why you lost the elections. While we were busy working and campaigning, you were busy cracking jokes in your party. No wonder you lost. Perhaps you should do much more of your joke-cracking, so you can perish more quickly than now. [Interjections.]
The energy future of our children depends on the decisions we make today. It is therefore imperative that the choices we make do not result in an undue burden for our children. Our department is fully alive to the impacts of our programmes on the lives of our people beyond the mere provision of energy.
In this regard, we have a number of initiatives that I would like to highlight before I go into the details of our programme.
Allow me, Chairperson, to briefly discuss the resource allocation of the department. It is proper to indicate that our department is under-resourced by at least 48%. This has a major impact on the capacity of the department to deliver.
This implies that the department is unable to ensure the optimal security of supply of energy, to adequately exercise oversight over the SOEs or to engage effectively with stakeholders. The department will need all the support it can get to ensure that the requisite resources to run its operations effectively are allocated.
However, it is not all doom and gloom. Sixty-two per cent of the staff complement is women, which indicates that we have exceeded our target of 50%.
Let me provide the overview of the programmes that our department has embarked upon to provide services to our communities.
The quest for universal access to electrify homesteads continues. The electrification programme provides not only a modern energy option for our people, it also has a positive socioeconomic impact on the lives of the ordinary South Africans. We have seen improvements in the education, health and social circumstances of communities that were electrified through the grid and off-grid technologies.
To date, South Africa's energy penetration stands at over 75%, and this year, with the R3,2 billion allocated to electrification programmes, we will connect an additional 150 000 households. We will build 10 substations and contribute about 5 000 jobs.
In the 2010-11 financial year we managed to create 5 811 jobs, and connected 195 000 homes to the electricity grid. We exceeded our target by 45 000 households.
Last year, in partnership with Sasol Oil, the seventh Integrated Energy Centre was constructed at Qunu in the Eastern Cape, and it is operational. This centre not only provides rural communities with access to energy services, but it also includes a computer centre with internet facilities and is located next to a school.
Two more centres, one of which will be funded by PetroSA, are planned for completion this year. As we strive to improve access to energy in rural areas, we will ensure that skills training provided for the centres is biased towards the local women, youth and people living with disabilities. Such programmes and interventions will have a positive socioeconomic impact on the targeted vulnerable groups.
Then we will go to the Working for Energy programme, another programme through which we intend to diversify our energy mix and increase access to energy. We shall be spending about R25 million during the year on the Working for Energy programme which, amongst other things, promotes labour- intensive energy projects across the country. This amount excludes funds that we have received from the governments of Finland and Austria.
I will touch on the energy efficiency programmes. We are looking forward to the positive contribution that our newly formed South African National Energy Development Institute, Sanedi, is going to make to the energy efficiency programme that we have earmarked. The department will work with National Treasury to ensure that Sanedi is properly resourced to deliver on its important mandate.
One of the key activities that will be undertaken by Sanedi is to oversee energy efficiency and demand-side management. In terms of Sanedi's role, it is expected that it will become the custodian of all energy efficiency programmes. This requires Sanedi to oversee energy efficiency initiatives, in particular to assist with the certification of energy savings achieved by those companies that seek to claim tax-deductions under the Income Tax Amendment Act.
We have secured the concurrence of the Minister of Finance for energy efficiency incentives under the standard offer of an energy-efficiency tax incentive scheme, which will be in place this year.
The 49 million campaign was launched by the Deputy President during the first quarter of this year. The campaign seeks to mobilise all South Africans to save our energy. Let us all rally behind this campaign and save electricity. In addition, our department continues to engage the Department of Public Works to ensure that all public buildings are retrofitted to reduce energy consumption.
We have to constantly remind ourselves that energy is the lifeblood of any form of existence and it impacts on what we do and affects our very existence. This year, going forward, special focus will be given to our interactions with organisations for women, youth, children and people living with disabilities.
In August this year we will be launching the South African chapter of the Clean Energy Education and Empowerment programme. This is one of the international clean energy Ministerial initiatives where our hon Minister of Energy, Ms Peters, has been designated as the clean energy ambassador for Africa. [Applause.]
Through this initiative we seek to empower women of all ages to participate in the clean energy space through business and professional networking; mentorship and coaching; training; and clean energy ambassadorships. We are in partnership with the industry and other interested parties to promote this initiative.
We will also enhance and streamline Women in Oil and Energy South Africa, Woesa, and its governance structures in order to intensify its operations. In July this year, together with our SOEs, we will be hosting the annual learners' focus week, which is one of our youth information-sharing and awareness sessions that addresses Grade 9 and Grade 10 learners from all provinces on careers in the energy sector.
I will now come to the public's participation. We have heeded the call from Cabinet to have a minimum of 10 successful public engagement events throughout the country annually. We take these public participation programmes very seriously as they provide us with opportunities to interact with communities in an unmediated manner.
More importantly, these events give our people an opportunity to express their views on service delivery issues to government leaders directly. It is what we call "izimbizo".
We require that our state-owned entities always contribute to the socioeconomic development of the areas in which they operate. Our national oil company, PetroSA, recently contributed to the provision of water to the Mossel Bay community through an investment of over R80 million for the construction of a plant. The plant will provide PetroSA with all water requirements for the gas-to-liquids refinery and drinking water to the residents of Mossel Bay.
PetroSA has also spent an amount of R16 million towards the construction of a school in Vredenburg, and R2,5 million towards the restoration of Healdtown Combined School, where our former President, Nelson Mandela, completed his high school education. I think this is a challenge to other stakeholders as well.
We continue to improve on one of our important strategic outputs of providing an effective and efficient communication service to the public. Our communication strategy is being aligned with the government communication strategy as set out by the government's communication and information systems.
Our department continues to strive to resolve all Presidential Hotline issues within the given timeframes and we continue to maintain a 100% resolved cases status. We are in the process of strengthening our Presidential Hotline office to ensure that we have sustained improvement in our turnaround time.
We have continued to strengthen our relationships with stakeholders such as the media, NGOs, other government departments, the private sector and SOEs, through increased interaction.
In this regard, our engagement with the mainstream media through regular round table discussions, have been effective in communicating the views of government on key energy matters.
In conclusion, while ensuring that energy security is critical, service delivery at a community interface is also something that we undertake with gusto.
Sihlalo Ohloniphekile, njengoKhongolose, siphinde sanikezwa ngabantu baseNingizimu Afrika igunya lokuthi sethule izidingo zabo. Thina kulo Mnyango wezaMandla, sizimisele ngokukhulu ukuzithoba ukuqhubeka nokubambisana nomphakathi.
Sizosebenzisana nohulumeni wasekhaya neminye iMinyango ukuze senze izimpilo zabantu zibe ngcono. Sithi-ke kubavoti baleli lizwe, siyabonga kakhulu ngokuthi baphinde bakhombise ukusethemba, nokuthi sisho kubona ukuthi ukwanda kwaliwa ngumthakathi, yena ongafuni ukubona abantu besizana. [Ihlombe.] Sengathi bangaphinda benze njalo nangomuso. Siyalibeka ithemba lethu kubona ngoba nabo siyazi ukuthi balibekile ithemba labo kithina. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[Hon Chairperson, as the African National Congress, we have been given the mandate by the people of South Africa to take care of their needs. In the Department of Energy, we are prepared to work with the community in a humble manner.
We will work with the local government and the other departments to improve the lives of our people. To the voters of this country we are saying, we are very grateful that you believed in us once more, and we would like to say that it is highly appreciated. [Applause.] They must do it again. We trust them as much as they trust us.]
In conclusion, Chairperson, I would like to dedicate this Budget Vote speech to Gugu Janet Wood, who was my PA and who passed away two weeks ago. Despite her short stint in the department, she had made a tremendous contribution. May her soul rest in peace. [Applause.]