Concerned citizens and activists have come to Parliament to speak out about the draft Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2018, with fracking, high electricity tariffs and coal-fired power stations among their concerns.

Ann October from the Eastridge Women’s Circle in Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Town, said pensioners were battling with high electricity prices.

“I’ve lived in Mitchell’s Plain for 42 years and we’ve never had the problems we are facing now with electricity. Our pensions are R1 700 a month and electricity can cost R1 300 a month. How can our people survive? What will the IRP 2018 do for pensioners? We sometimes have to go without electricity because we can’t afford it.”

Concerned Citizens of Lephalale chairperson Elana Greyling, meanwhile, said coal mines and development in Limpopo had devastated the area.

“Our whole area looks like an old woman with her teeth knocked out,” she told Members of Parliament.

She said the community had not benefitted from megaprojects in the province.

“Our communities have not had all the benefits promised to us [as a result of] the megaprojects like Medupi. We are on the receiving end of the costs of that megaproject. We have been paying with our health and our land. A huge part of agricultural land has been bought up by prospecting companies.”

She said the proposed Thabametsi project would deepen their problems in the area.

Emerging farmer, Neville van Rooy, from the Karoo, said farmers were extremely concerned about possible fracking in the area. “The Karoo is a water-scarce area. We are alarmed about the competition that we may have for water.” He was also worried about damage to the environment, particularly as "interaction with nature is very alive in the Karoo".

Khoi San chief, Mark Masenxa Orsen, said he was worried that two new proposed coal-fired stations would ultimately "hit the poor the hardest" if costs were high.

“The best way is to go green, finish and klaar,” he told Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Energy. He also called for transparency within Eskom and on the IRP. “We need to negotiate from the bottom up, not from the top down.” He said people were still wary of state capture and corruption which led management and contractors “to get rich while our people suffer”.

Energy youth ambassador Mosuli Qhaba from Khayelitsha in Cape Town warned of the health effects caused by pollution from coal-fired power stations. “Eskom is damaging our environment and asthma is big within communities. We need to be mindful of the health of our people.”

Timo Gonnema from the Khoisan Council in Stellenbosch called for environmentally conscious leaders.

“Indigenous and aboriginal communities have lived in sync and harmony with the environment since the dawn of time. We need indigenous leaders conscious of their responsibility to the environment, not profit-pursuing politicians.”

Portfolio Committee on Energy chairperson Fikile Majola said the committee would consider whether to hold hearings in communities. It would compile the submissions from public hearings into a report for the Department of Energy.

“South Africans must have these type of conversations to try to find consensus. I don’t know how we are going to resolve this, but it needs to be well-considered.”

Role players and interested organisations from across the energy spectrum have been taking part in public hearings in Parliament. They end on Friday.