Hon member, I think the point that you have just made is also a very important point that you could make in the public comment processes for the IRP.
I indicated that business, labour and other stakeholders have requested for an extension. The extension allows until 15 December for inputs. I would call on you to do that.
I also want to indicate to you that what we did in Upington the other day with the Concentrated Solar Power, CSP, and Photovoltaics, PV, investor conference is market sounding to hear from the investors who have been saying to us we can produce this amount of megawatt from solar. If they have the interest to honour the requirements, policies and directives of South Africa in terms of localisation and job creation, we want to grow local manufacturing with those initiatives.
We are also saying that the IRP is a dynamic document. We all know that the different utilities as well as the IPPs submit applications to Nersa every three years in terms of the Multi-Year Price Determination, MYPD, process for applications. We want to allow South Africa the space. When technologies improve, the price goes down. If we lock ourselves into a 5 000 megawatt plant it means we will have to be able to acquire whatever is required for that solar power station at today's prices. This technology is changing almost like you change your cellphones. I want to say to you that it is important for us that we also become responsible and allow you to know that developed countries have started scaling down in terms of the wind power as well as the solar power. They are all flocking to the developing countries. We don't want to be guinea pigs or the dumping grounds for obsolete or redundant technology. We also want to create space for the entry point of new technologies.
If we start, as I've indicated in the speech I delivered yesterday, we are committed to the first 1 100 megawatt of solar in the first year, so we believe that we are going to achieve it with those companies that want to invest with South Africa or in line with the South African terms.
I just want to say to you with regard to the Power Purchase Agreements, PPAs, that it's a purely commercial transaction. We can't determine for the utility or the systems and market operator what the price should be. Every investor, every IPP must negotiate and be able to get a commercial transaction that would be in line with what the tariff is. If we determine it at this level, who is going to be the ultimate payer of that tariff? It would mean that the consumers will have to pay even if we say that the solar power or wind power or whatever power must be sold at R10 or however many thousands of rands per kilowatt hour.
We need to allow operators, which would be Eskom and the systems operator, to determine tariffs because it would be a commercial arrangement and commercial transaction that they engage in.
I want to say that we are also very wary as South Africa to lock ourselves into that long-term contract for Concentrated Solar Power, CSP, whilst we are busy investing in Research and Development on initiatives with regard to clean coal and clean technology. What if tomorrow there is a way of using coal in a better way and we've got so much coal reserves here?
I think it is also important that we create those loops for South Africa to be able to use whatever new technology is presented. In September we launched the CCS atlas. We will soon be doing a demonstration and we also believe that very soon, with the support of Australia and Norway, we would be able to start the injection of carbon into the disused gas fields. I think it is important that we remember that we are doing it in the best interests of South Africans. Thank you.
Position regarding effect of settlement of outstanding rural land restitution claims on meeting of target for black ownership
261. Ms L D Mazibuko (DA) asked the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform:
Whether the settlement of the 3 852 outstanding rural land restitution claims will contribute to meeting the 30% target set by his department for black ownership of productive agricultural land; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?