Public presentations on the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) are set to get underway this week but the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse says that not enough has been done to notify the public.
The Department of Energy (DOE) last month released a draft for the IRP which contained new assumptions regarding the split of nuclear and renewable energy generation for South Africa.
This draft is now set to be presented to the public in a series of consultations to discuss the document but Outa says that these session haven’t been advertised widely enough.
“They (the DOE) have not advertised these sessions widely enough and as such, we do not believe this consultative and public engagement process is being conducted meaningfully,” said the organisation. “The IRP is some six years late and now Government appears to be rushing this process through without providing the public and civil society organisations with sufficient time to participate.”
Outa has said that it has identified several flaws in the IRP documents and the engagement process adding that this tramples on the rights of citizens.
“There are significant problems at both a procedural and a technical level,” director of Outa’s energy portfolio Ted Blom said in a statement.
“Having waited six years for the updated IRP document, we are now being asked to react in a few days to an incomplete document that has already been gazetted, withdrawn and republished just in the last week. This means that two different versions of the Draft IRP-2016 document are floating about in the public domain and this will add to the confusion,” added Blom.
Outa has requested to Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson that the process be put on hold until the Integrated Energy Plan (IEP) is finalised saying, “Only once the IEP has followed due process and is promulgated, can the IRP commence, from which South Africa’s electricity plan be meaningfully applied. Until then, the current rushed process becomes meaningless.”
Despite this Outa has said that it will still take place in the discussions being on 7th December at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg. That session starts at 08:30.
If you aren’t in Johannesburg, presentations and discussions will be held at the following venues around the country this month:
- 9th December – Olive Convention Centre, Durban
- 13th December – Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town
- 14th December – Sun International Broadwalk, Port Elizabeth
