Are we ready for the Energy Revolution?

South Africa is in a deep and very serious energy crisis that has had a major impact on our economy, our businesses, and our lives.

This ANC-induced mess threatens the very fragile fabric of our emancipation from apartheid, causing the country to fall deeper into the abyss of poverty, raising unemployment, worsening crime, increasing inequality and further polarising one group from another, and distancing South Africa from the rest of the developed and developing world.

We need an energy revolution to get us out of the mess that the ANC has created. But not the ill-conceived and childlike Eskom 2.0 vomited out by Gwede Mantashe and praised by Cyril Ramaphosa as “not a bad idea”, while a mere week later he presents his own clumsy and barely thought-out “energy solution”. It is more than obvious this ANC government has no plan and certainly no capability to fix the mess it has delivered to the country.

Greenhouse gases

South Africa generates less than one percent of global greenhouse gases, yet as a developing nation we have the most ambitious pledges in terms of the Paris Agreement compared to other BRICS nations. Why? Are we trying desperately to punch above our weight?

Like the US and other smart countries, South Africa needs to secure its energy sovereignty. Even if we had 6000MW of renewables tomorrow, it would not solve our energy crisis. Load-shedding will still persist. We need more dispatchable and more reliable and more available energy generation like gas, which the EU has now declared a green fuel. Even the Minister of Environment, Barbara Creecy, calls it a “transition fuel” in terms of our Just Transition policy.

The South African government is realising quickly that it has placed unnecessary environmental controls on Eskom and our once-thriving industry, to the detriment of our battered economy and desperately needed energy sovereignty. Russia’s destructive invasion of Ukraine has delivered a wake-up call to all nations, especially those depending on Russian gas like Germany and others, that their own citizens must take priority. Our BRICS associates have realised that too. So-called “green nations” like Germany are rushing back to coal and gas, and to nuclear.

As Ramaphosa has declared, this is the first historical nationwide energy crisis, but he has yet to admit his government is to blame.

Unconventional means

We therefore must resort to some unconventional means of getting energy onto the grid, and gas is the fastest and most obvious solution. Even Eskom CEO De Ruyter admits this. We therefore need enabling green tape, and serious cutting of ANC-beloved red tape. We need enabling regulations, and not those that want to kill the economy. And we need the private sector to be allowed to deliver the solution, as the ANC government is clearly incapable, grossly corrupt, and fundamentally incompetent.

The recent regulations to limit certain activities around onshore shale gas exploration and production are highly questionable. While one department promotes energy security, the other wants to suppress it – former President Thabo Mbeki made it clear and public that the ANC has no policy or direction. What we urgently need is a moratorium on these unnecessary regulations. The recent relaxation of environmental impact assessment requirements is welcomed, but that is not enough.

We also need a national debate to discuss the:

– Technical Case for more easily despatchable energy, like gas, in our energy mix, with a significant review of the IRP;

– Economic Case for alternative forms of energy, and not just solar and wind. What is the true levelised cost of energy? Who are the real beneficiaries and what should be the most affordable way to bring energy as fast as possible?

– Social Case for less red tape, removing unnecessary regulations. We must face head-on the selfish and cult-like green activism that is strangling our nation. We can still ensure realistic environmental protection while delivering sustainable development. In terms of the United Nations Convention on Sustainable Development, our country should step up and promote this sustainable development. Let us have a real conversation on what sustainable development really is all about. Other BRICS countries have put their citizens’ basic needs first, and so should we; and

– Political Case to embrace energy sovereignty for our country. We need to secure our energy future through whatever means possible. We cannot allow a handful of government officials with their pet projects to hold this country to ransom with their unsubstantiated green agendas (borrowed mainly from the West), or communist-inspired giant command and control projects which inevitably fail and are cesspits for breeding cadres and corruption.

Shale gas

It is well known that there is a huge basin of shale gas underneath at least half of the territory of South Africa. We also know from the US, Canada, and other markets that there is an environmentally friendly, responsible, and sustainable way to explore, produce, and distribute it.

Let’s therefore give ourselves a chance and not, again, throw the baby out with the bathwater. As it stands today, the spineless and indecisive President Ramaphosa will be known forever as the President who let the lights go out in South Africa.

It is time to allow the private sector to enter the onshore gas exploration and production market in South Africa.  

And fast.

The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR

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