Chairperson, hon Minister, the ID firmly believes that one of the biggest single determinants of our country's future success lies in the choices that we make around energy. This department clearly has a critical role to play in these choices. It is disappointing to the ID that it continues to suffer from a major lack of capacity, both in terms of human and financial resources.
It is unacceptable that the budget for setting up modelling capacity in this department was only given in this financial year and that, as a result, we will have to wait at least another year before a proper integrated energy plan for the country is produced.
This integrated energy plan should have been the blueprint for all of our energy decisions where the different generation technologies are modelled and their costs and benefits to the economy and the environment are clearly spelt out. Instead we have hastily drawn-up Integrated Resource Plans, IRPs, that merely rubber stamp the plans put forward by Eskom.
We need a new approach to energy in this country, one that is prepared to look beyond the straitjacket of coal and nuclear power. The ID therefore hopes that the current IRP process will be a far more consultative one that would truly expand the realm of potentialities when it comes to our energy future.
The future, however, cannot be built on rhetoric, and we need to unlock the barriers that are preventing independent power producers, IPPs, and generators of renewable energy from entering the market. The standardised power purchase agreement, for instance, needs to be finalised urgently by this department so that IPPs can use it to raise the necessary finance.
We have the potential to create a huge renewable energy industry in South Africa, but in order to achieve this, we have to set far bolder targets for both wind energy and concentrated solar power than those currently contained in the existing IRP if we want to kick-start these burgeoning industries. We should also look at increasing these targets if we find that they are massively oversubscribed. The department also needs to clarify what selection criteria will govern its allocations of these targets, as the process is currently open to massive abuse.
On this last point, Minister, the ID also contends that we have to remove the vested interests in energy that are preventing us from making choices that are to the entire country's benefit. The current conflict of interest that exists through the ANC's shareholding in Hitachi Power Africa is locking us into a coal-based future. The boiler contracts for the Kusile coal-fired plant, which the ANC will benefit from, have already been concluded, thereby making it difficult for us to now abandon that project, even if it is not in our country's interest to pursue that energy path.
I believe, Minister, that it is not unpatriotic to expose a glaring conflict of interest. It is instead unpatriotic not to do anything about it. I therefore hope the ANC will finally do the right thing and remove its vested interest from a coal-based future. I thank you. [Applause.]