the challenges of providing access to clean, reliable and affordable electricity,
and addressing major environmental challenges including climate change.
Improved transparency and public participation in the development of policy
and regulation can help manage trade-offs between environmental, social,
and financial considerations, and also identify points of convergence of these
public interests.
But the governance of the electricity sector in South Africa is seriously flawed;
there is a profound democratic deficit in the way decisions are taken, oversight
and regulation occurs, and in which stakeholders are listened to and included
in the policy-making process. In particular, the sector is prone to manipulation
and domination by a select group of state and non-state actors, allowing the
public interest to be obscured by vested private interests.
South Africa must urgently make important choices about its future. It is
essential that those choices are both well-informed and legitimate.
To set South Africa on a sustainable energy path at this crucial moment
requires a fundamental reassessment of the adequacy of our institutions, and
of how effectively we relate to each other as policy makers, electricity service
providers, consumers, and citizens.
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