Ramokgopa promises electricity price relief for industries – SABC News

Electricity and Energy Minister Dr. Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has sought to assure high-intensity energy users and manufacturing industry players that plans are at an advanced stage to introduce a dispensation that will cushion the industry from the high costs of electricity.

This comes amid calls for government to extend energy price relief to various industrial sectors.

Transalloys, South Africa’s last remaining manganese smelter, recently halted production at its eMalahleni facility in Mpumalanga, citing years of financial losses caused by high electricity tariffs.

Ramokgopa says government has identified 11 energy-intensive companies that will soon benefit from subsidised electricity, similar to Glencore and Samancor

“We have done the first phase, I always make the point. Glencore and Samancor were the first on the queue. So, now we’ve done a framework that accommodates everyone, have taken it through to a cabinet. We are good to go, so we’re going to be making the announcement of the next phases of those who will benefit. So, everyone that qualifies is going to benefit. The intention here is that we must ensure that industries remain open, people remain in jobs, and not just that, but expand capacity utilisation. And with this support, we are not going to sub-socialise the cost. So, the end consumer won’t bear the responsibility of the support we are giving. We have designed an instrument that helps us to address both sides.”

In Pictures | The Minister of Electricity & Energy, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa this afternoon opened the Manufacturing Indaba in Sandton, highlighting how the country’s transmission rollout will power industrialisation, unlocking South Africa manufacturing growth.

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High-intensity energy users are intensifying calls on government for energy price relief, saying high electricity prices are hollowing out South Africa’s industrial base.

“The electricity pricing issue is a major threat to first, the industrialisation, it’s a major pain point. And I think this point can even be made up to the household level and what more for industrial users of electricity.  I mean that is a pressure point. This industry employed north of 500 000 people just a decade and a half ago, 575 000 to be exact.  Now it’s down to about 360 000. So that’s about 22o 000 jobs lost in the period of a decade and a half,” says Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa’s CEO, Tafadzwa Chibanguza.

VIDEO | Companies have raised concerns about the high cost of electricity as an impediment of growth: