A lot more has to be done to promote economic regulation in SA – Martins
Notwithstanding the work that government has done to promote economic regulation in South Africa, a lot more still has to be done, Energy Minister Dikobe Ben Martins said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the second South African Economic Regulators Conference, cohosted by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa and the University of Johannesburg, Martins pointed out that government had, to date, established economic regulators in the electricity, gas and petroleum pipelines, ports, aviation, and telecommunications industries, adding that in the transport sector the process of establishing a single transport economic regulator was also ongoing.
The Minister said, in terms of the National Development Plan (NDP), these economic regulators were tasked with safeguarding reliable and competitively priced services, while promoting affordable access for poor households.
Regulators were also supposed to ensure that utilities and operators were efficient and financially viable so that they could invest in maintaining, refurbishing and extending their networks.
“In analysing the effectiveness of economic regulators after more than 15 years, the NDP notes that although regulators have succeeded in issuing licences, developing pricing methods and establishing technical service standards, they have not achieved the positive outcomes initially envisaged,” Martins said, noting that this situation could be attributed to capacity constraints and institutional weaknesses, among other reasons.
Martins further said critical interventions that had to be implemented to improve the performance and effectiveness of economic regulators were set out in the NDP.
These included instituting a far-reaching review of current infrastructure regulators to clarify roles, strengthen accountability and update legislation to explore the possibility of the further consolidation of regulators and the establishment of a monitoring and evaluation unit in the Presidency to undertake periodic regulatory impact reviews, as well as provide advice and support to regulatory authorities.
“It is further noteworthy to recall that President Jacob Zuma reiterated in his State of the Nation Address that government is committed to the implementation of the NDP.
“This conference should be a critical and constructive part of ongoing engagement among stakeholders to find ways to implement the NDP,” he added.
Martins further said, in the energy sector, the Department of Energy would continue to work with economic regulators to identify measures to strengthen their capacity and improve performance.
“Economic regulators should also learn from each other’s best practice. Owing to changing market structures across the economy, economic regulators in South Africa are at different levels of development and expertise, which necessitates the regular exchange of information and expertise among them,” he pointed out.
Comments
The
content
you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.
If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.
If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.
For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation