Chairperson, I'd like to agree with the Minister, that this debate is taking place at a dedicated time, during the Youth Month. The Confederations Cup is also taking place at the same time in our country. Without any hindrance such as load shedding, we've managed to do well, and we hope this will continue till the end of the Confederations Cup.
Last Wednesday we adopted the report of the portfolio committees, after deliberations by the departments on 9 and 10 June. We were able to adopt these reports unanimously. We hope that, as the two portfolio committees, we will have the good spirit to work together until the final split. As voters voted us into Parliament, we will make sure that we do so in unity.
The ANC-led government has inherited an economy that is premised on the dominance of mining and heavy industry, characterised by extremely low energy prices and massive capital-intensive and energy-intensive projects. Though we are 15 years into our democracy, our economy is, however, energy- intensive and is still based on primary extraction and processing of coal and other mineral resources. Currently, energy contributes approximately 15% of the GDP and creates jobs for over 250 000 people.
This economic configuration has remained largely untransformed. It has instead been strengthened, although the current economic transformation efforts seek to stimulate other sectors to diversify the production base and increase competitiveness. Surely, energy drawn from coal constitutes a very high proportion of South Africa's energy consumption. In actual fact, it is the highest in the world, excluding noncommercial energy carriers, followed closely by China.
However, as a developing country, we need to invest more in the energy mix. Currently, coal meets 80% of South Africa's primary energy needs, nuclear approximately 3% and renewable energy approximately 8%. Surely, we need to make sure that we do not move away entirely from coal, but try to take measures to invest in other technologies. So, Minister, we are going to support you in this regard and make sure that we are in a position to deal with our malady.
The Polokwane conference asked, amongst other things, that government be directly involved in the creation of decent jobs, expanding the role of the Public Works Programme and create job opportunities directly to target vulnerable groups, such as the rural poor, women and the youth. So, surely, poverty and unemployment remain prominent realities in South Africa. However, we have done so much that at least there is change. As I stated, we inherited this from the apartheid regime, but we have been able to move on and make sure that we work to the level required of us to do better. That is the reason we have been brought back to power.
There is a proposal to amend Schedule 4(b) of the Constitution, as the Minister indicated. This amendment will see the Regional Electricity Distributors, REDs, being implemented. That is going to be part of our major work as the portfolio committee, and we'll try to make sure that the various stakeholders, entities or state-owned enterprises that report to the department do their job. Part of our job is to make sure that we oversee your work and see to it that you do better, especially for the sake of the poor.
We'll continue to deal with the energy challenges emanating from this economic meltdown. We hope that the ANC-led government will be able to deal with those challenges, because we managed to deal with bigger challenges before. Surely, the generation, transmission, distribution, reticulation capacity and the diversifying of sources of energy by household and industrial users remains a key challenge. However, we don't think that we'd go back to the inadequate electricity reserve.
In 1994, we had energy reserves, but it is a fact that it did not even serve half the population. There were some areas that could not access that reserve. With universal access, we will be able to make sure that we deal with this. In this regard, the 2009 ANC election manifesto has made mention of the ANC's intention to ensure that government will defend decisively the economy and take measures that advance the departmental agenda. We believe that this is going to be the solution as the industrial policy framework also covers this.
Experience has taught us that innovative thinking is central to economic prosperity. I think that every sector needs some form of energy or an energy mix, for example transport, schools, mining, the World Cup, etc. We hope that the good policies that the ANC government is implementing will continue to do well, in the spirit of assisting a lot of people to move out of poverty.
The Polokwane conference resolution referred to earlier targeted the question of the beneficiation process in terms of the larger scale of issues that we deal with. As we deal with the challenges of compact fluorescent lamps and others, we should try to manufacture these in South Africa. This way we can make sure that we create the jobs that we promised people. This is going to be a difficult task, but we believe that with what we have at our disposal we will be able to do that.
The President, when he addressed us, said that ``abantu basemakhaya nabo banelungelo lokuba nombane, amanzi, izindlu zangasese ezigungxulwayo, imigwaqo, izindawo zokuqeda isizungu, izindawo zemidlalo kanye nezindawo zokuthenga eziphucukile, ama-shopping centre njengasemadolobheni. [People who stay in rural areas also have the right to receive basic electricity, water, proper sanitation, roads, recreational facilities, sports facilities and decent shopping centres like in the urban areas.]
Ka nnete o ne a bua le rona hore re etse mosebetsi ono. Lona Matona, re tshepile lona. [He was truly speaking to us; telling us to do that. Ministers, we entrust you with that task.] Normally, they say, "If you want something to be debated and further contextualised, give it to a man, but if you want something to be done, give it to a woman." [Applause.] So, I'm glad to have two women at the helm of this department. They are going to make sure that we do things rather than debate continuously, raising issues that are not going to help us deliver.
The portfolio committee is going to work with you, but be assured that we'll do our oversight work robustly. The President said that this is an activist Parliament. So, good luck. We hope that we'll have a good working relationship, in the spirit of: "Working together, we can do more." I thank you. [Applause.]
HON MEMBERS: Malibongwe! [Praise!]