Government is ramping up energy investments, with 720MW of new renewable capacity nearing completion and a new infrastructure bond in the works, finance minister Enoch Godongwana announced on Wednesday.
Presenting his medium-term budget policy statement, Godongwana reminded South Africans that not too long ago the country was on a brink on an energy crisis that threatened to derail the economy.
“Load shedding has come down significantly. Through focused and targeted interventions led by Operation Vulindlela, we are transforming the sector. We are building a competitive wholesale market that gives investors certainty,” he said.
“The National Transmission Company (South Africa) has now applied for its market operator licence. We are investing in new capacity and alternative sources.”
The NTCSA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Eskom. It owns and operates the country’s national electricity transmission system, with the aim of modernising the grid to handle new energy sources and to improve the overall reliability and efficiency of electricity distribution. Long-serving Eskom official Monde Bala was appointed as its CEO earlier this month.
Godongwana said that more than 2.2GW of solar, wind and battery projects are in development. Eskom has added 800MW from Kusile unit 6 and is showing signs of operational and financial improvements.
The treasury will soon launch a new infrastructure bond to raise a minimum of R15-billion, part of government’s efforts to introduce dedicated financing instruments to mobilise cheaper financing to support its infrastructure projects.
‘New era’
Godongwana said government will contribute R2-billion to capitalise the credit guarantee vehicle. Initially, it will support electricity transmission expansion to boost energy security efforts while driving decarbonisation.
“This heralds a new era in PPPs (public-private partnerships), where private investment in high-voltage transmission lines is enabled. This is real progress in our move away from merely fixing the power utility to securing power to the grid from a range of sources,” he said.
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The South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (Sapvia) welcomed the announcement, describing it as a pivotal step in translating energy policy into financial reality. “The minister’s announcement is a gamechanger and a direct answer to the industry’s most critical request,” said Sim Khuluse, technical and policy manager of Sapvia, in a statement.
Godongwana also announced that the government is modernising public service and payroll through a procurement payments dashboard using data from the Basic Accounting System (BAS). It was launched on Wednesday.
“This dashboard, which is available on national treasury’s eTender website, shows the payments made to suppliers by most national and provincial government departments as captured on our payments system. This represents a massive step forward in procurement transparency,” he said.
The dashboard will help identify inefficiencies and anomalies and uncover opportunities for consolidation.
Godongwana said it enables analysis of procurement expenditure and the suppliers that do business with the state so that citizens, academics and civil society can holds departments accountable in the fight against corruption and fraud.
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The treasury is also working with the departments of public service & administration and home affairs on a data-driven system integration initiative to eliminate ghost workers in the public service – a problem costing South Africa billions.
Godongwana said government has so far uncovered nearly 9 000 “high-risk” cases that have been flagged for further verification. – (c) 2025 NewsCentral Media
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