Chairperson, hon Ministers, Members of Parliament, the public, media, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and friends, before I get into the limited speaking time allocated to me, I just need to talk about two other points that have been raised here: Firstly, in our portfolio committee meeting the term "blackout" was used. I enquired what ``blackouts'' and ``brownouts'' were and why there were no "yellow-outs" and "green-outs". [Laughter.] The response I got was that South Africa has never had a blackout. I wonder what makes it fashionable that blackouts must now be mentioned in this meeting by a member of that committee.
Secondly, the issue of political affiliation, it's a right protected in the Constitution. Whether a person joins the ANC after or before we have appointed him is a right reserved for that person in terms of the Constitution of South Africa. It's the right to freedom of association.
The need for energy in today's life is beyond any basic description other than a basic need. As advocates of sustainable development, the ANC holds that the development of today's generation should not be to the detriment of future generations, hence the following was resolved in Polokwane: to set a target for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as part of our responsibility to protect the environment and promote sustainable development, and to participate in sharing the burden with the global community under a common framework of action.
President Gedleyihlekisa Zuma, in his state of the nation address, assured the nation that: "We will continue to improve our energy efficiency and reliance on renewable energy." We call on government departments to apply energy efficiency in buildings, including energy efficient building plans.
Regarding the Integrated National Electrification Programme, Inep, the White Paper on the energy policy of the Republic of South Africa emphasises the need for integrated energy planning. The ANC resolved at the Polokwane conference to build the strategic, organisational and technical capacities of government with a view to a democratic state through, among others, ensuring a security of supply of energy resources and pursuing an energy mix that includes clean and renewable sources to meet the demand of our fast-growing economy without compromising our commitment to sustainable development. The Polokwane resolution, read with the White Paper on energy, leads us to the following processes and functions. Maybe, Chairperson, I should not read them, for the sake of time, but we'll circulate this document at a later stage. [Interjections.]
The implementation of the Inep poses challenges of capacity and its existence in South Africa. The Polokwane resolution asked for, among other things, government to be directly involved in the creation of decent jobs, an expanded role for the Public Works Programme and job opportunities to directly target vulnerable groups such as the rural poor, women and youth.
Poverty and unemployment remain prominent realities in South Africa, and government increased allocations in order to address these challenges. As the Integrated National Electrification Programme is connected to the Expanded Public Works Programme, allocations to the Inep should be increased to move with speed towards achieving universal access to electricity by 2014, whilst creating additional jobs.
Nongrid technologies such as solar should be integrated into the Inep as complementary supply technologies to grid extension. The key challenges to these are: the establishment of appropriate structures and systems; the establishment and maintenance of resources to operate these structures; linking IEP technical functions to the policy-making process ...