ANC to discuss energy distribution, Post Bank
THE ANC released its national general council (NGC) policy discussion documents yesterday, which centre on transforming the economy, boosting growth and creating jobs.
But if the current structural impediments to growth, including persistent power problems and a challenging labour environment, are anything to go by, the policy discussions would yield very little to change the course.
Among the radical proposals made were the need to remove the distribution of electricity by municipalities, to address of deficiencies in state-owned enterprises and to pay civil servants through the Post Bank.
However, the discussions that branches are expected to give input on take place amid a gloomy global economy with very slim chances of recovery in the short to medium term. Falling commodity prices have added to the challenges facing the country.
ANC head of policy Jeff Radebe yesterday conceded that the ruling party’s NGC in October was faced with tough decisions on ensuring that the economy was brought back on track to create jobs for millions of South Africans.
Radebe said economic growth had been too slow to address some of the country's fundamental problems and that the current electricity crisis had become a major impediment to growth.
“Resolving the energy issue is top on our priority list,” Radebe said.
“There are very important proposals to improve governance on these state-owned institutions to ensure effective delivery of infrastructure.”
The documents were released for membership and public consumption at the party’s Luthuli headquarters in Johannesburg yesterday – two months ahead of the muchawaited NGC, which was initially scheduled to take place in June.
The party said the government should intensify the use of public procurement and state concessions as a policy tool for development.
It said the Post Bank should be turned into a state bank that could be used as a secure lender for consumers and financial access.
“All civil servants should be paid through the Post Bank,” the ANC said. “Postal regulations should define the postal market and segmentation in line with the UPU (Universal Postal Union) strategy.”
The ANC said the country needed to review the distribution of electricity by municipalities as municipalities were “milking” consumers by implementing exorbitant mark-ups in the price structure and poor supply reliability, while neglecting the infrastructure used for electricity supply.
It said there was a potential threat to small, medium and micro-enterprises and other industries that relied heavily on local government for their electricity consumption.
“An urgent sustainable resolution of this issue is required, which must involve (the) National Treasury and its approach towards the use of electricity rents in local government financing,” read the documents.
“Otherwise, it is likely that electricity distribution infrastructure collapse will be the next energy crisis that our country will face and municipal practices would accelerate the de-industrialisation in municipal supplied areas.”