Chairperson, like my colleague, the Minister of Mineral Resources, I want to take this opportunity to thank all members for their participation as well as their support for the Budget Vote in this twin-track Budget Vote debate.
ANC members in this debate are aware of the challenge we have of ensuring that we meet our targets and that our people out there do not have access to resources that we want to roll out, and that they are very impatient since they've been waiting for a long time. The remaining 24% of areas without electricity in our country are in the three poorest provinces and the informal settlements, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo as well as the informal settlements in Gauteng. So, we need to speed up the process in order to make sure that our people have access to these resources.
Hon Nchabeleng said that he saw many combatants in the House today. I think it's because of the challenges facing our country and our people, which make them respond positively when they are called upon. As activists they need to be sure that we are kept on our toes to respond to the needs of the people; and I thank them for their attendance.
Hon Motau, who on the spoke carbon capture and storage issue, the South African National Energy Research Institute, Saneri, will soon be incorporated into Saneti, the South African National Energy Technology Institute, which has been working in the Council of Geoscience and other stakeholders to prepare the groundwork for carbon capturing and storage. I want to announce here today that there will be an international conference on carbon capture and storage which will be held here in South Africa and it will be hosted by Saneri. I believe that members of the committee will be invited to this important conference that will examine which strategies can be used to fast-track carbon capture and storage development globally.
The hon Dexter spoke about the lack of incentives and I believe that energy efficiency should be paid for by energy wasters. Those who use more should pay more. That is why we suggest some kind of stepped tariff or a sliding scale type of tariff. The more you use, the more you should pay, so that we are able to make sure that those people who are the poorest of the poor and who do not use electricity can be cross-subsidised by those who use it.
Hon Lucas, you mentioned that there is underspending. I'm happy to say that, as a department, we acknowledged that we had an underexpenditure of 0,9% in the department. It is also important to mention that the expenditure in the 2007-08 budget was 99%, which is actually a very good track record. Hon Lucas, you also spoke about the issue of the pebble bed modular reactor, PMBR, and I want to inform you that PMBR is a project company that is owned by our sister department, the Department of Public Enterprises, and we will evaluate it as part of the Nuclear Policy Implementation Plan. And I believe that members of this committee will participate in the process.
Hon member - is it Greyling or Schmidt who spoke about the large scale of theft at Eskom - I appreciate that you raised this matter here. The losses of coal as well as other issues related to operational matters at Eskom will be raised with the Department of Public Enterprises, DPE. I believe that as a responsible hon member you should take that opportunity to raise it with the Minister of Public Enterprises so that it could be tracked down. This matter needs to be reported to the police, because it borders on criminality and action must be taken in that regard. Theft is theft; corporate theft is even worse because it denies people access - like you indicated - to resources. And you indicated that there's a possibility that we cross-subsidise that theft with the tariff increases. So, this is a serious matter that needs to be considered.
The Energy Efficiency Strategy is currently out for public comment, hon Greyling, and we hope that you will provide valuable inputs to this strategy, whose implementation will be underpinned by regulations. The closing date is the end of the month. So, we appeal to you to make sure that you participate in this important process. You'd also recall that my predecessor, hon Buyelwa Sonjica, hosted the Renewable Energy Summit in March this year. One of its resolutions was the process in which the renewable energy White Paper will be revised. One of my duties after assuming office was to start and approve this public participation process. I believe that we all need to participate. We'll also be having a solar industry summit where all role-players in the solar industry, from manufacturing up to service provision, will be participating. [Time expired.] [Applause.]