Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) has appointed J&J Group’s Jayendra Naidoo as its ‘energy champion’ in a bid to influence the debate on South Africa’s future energy policy and pricing trajectory, as well as to advocate for a larger private- sector role within the milieu.

BLSA, which is an association of the 80 largest domestic, multi- national and State-owned enterprises (including Eskom) ope- rating in South Africa, has tasked Naidoo to lead a process of producing a discussion docu- ment on the matter in a bid to influence the national debate.

But CEO Michael Spicer told Engineering News that the asso- ciation also intended aligning its interventions with those of Business Unity South Africa (Busa), as the mandated and representative body of business in South Africa.

“As an association, we have greater freedom than Busa to debate some of these questions and we are also able to draw on the considerable financial and human resources of some of our members while doing so.”

It was not yet clear whether BLSA, which is chaired by former Eskom chairperson Bobby Godsell, would make a separate input into the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s deliberations into Eskom’s tariff application.

However, Spicer said that the organisation and its mem- bers were keen to play a coordination role on behalf of big business on a range of energy matters, from the tariff increases through to the upcoming inte- grated resource plan (IRP), which was unveiled by Energy Minister Dipuo Peters in early December.

The IRP provides a road map for South Africa’s energy security, as well as outline the role of new energy technolo- gies, the private sector and imports in meeting South Africa’s growing power demand.

Spicer said that, while business accepted the need for tariff increases, there was “definitely room for debate on the Eskom funding model and the future operating model” for the elec- tricity supply industry.

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