Following the court application launched in January by eco-justice organisations The Green Connection and the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI), the two entities have continued to pursue the court case calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to bring Section 6 of National Energy Act (NEA) into operation.

Section 6 of the Act requires the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy to develop and publish the Integrated Energy Plan (IEP) and review it on a yearly basis. According to both eco-justice organisations, it is this lack of proper, updated energy planning that lies at the root of the country’s current energy problems.

According to the two organisations, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe and Ramaphosa “remain steadfast in their position to not bring Section 6 into operation, ensuring they can continue to avoid being obliged by law to produce an IEP for South Africa, when we need it most”.

The organisations indicate that in response, Ramaphosa and Mantashe provided the record of documentation that indicated the reasons why they had not, for 15 years, brought Section 6 of the NEA into operation.

However, the two organisations posit that the 34-page document merely provides copies of correspondence – 29 of these pages are The Green Connection’s own communications with the Presidency and Ministry – dating back to December 2020.

“Both SAFCEI and The Green Connection agree that it is absurd that copies of their own correspondence have been provided to them as part of the rationale for the government not enacting the necessary legal framework to carry out energy planning,” the organisations emphasise.

“Government is silent on why it failed to act from 2008 to 2020 and, just as we remain in the dark with loadshedding, the ridiculously paltry ‘record’ sheds no further light on government’s decision to disrupt the country’s energy systems and energy planning process by stalling the bringing of Section 6 into operation.

“And while the country grapples with the crippling energy crisis, the minister of energy continues to try to justify delaying advising the President to bring Section 6 into operation by relying on a need to first complete various sector plans, and only mentioning those related to electricity,” comments The Green Connection advocacy officer Kholwani Simelane.

The Green Connection and SAFCEI submitted a supplementary founding affidavit, which confirms the position set out in their founding affidavit.

The organisations say that deferring the obligation to produce the IEP – by not bringing Section 6 into effect – the Minister is given a free hand, without legal consequences, to either produce it “unreasonably” late, or even not produce it at all.

The organisations add that it also lets the Minister bypass the statutory criteria stipulated in Section 6, which therefore do not bind him when energy planning takes place.

Both organisations agree that this could not have been Parliament’s intention.

“Aspects of the IEP that most people would not be aware of include air quality management, greenhouse gas mitigation in the energy sector, social equity, and affordability. These are just some of the critical issues which the Minister would have to take into account in planning South Africa’s energy future if Section 6 were in place.

“The law also says the Minister must invite public comments and ‘duly consider such comments’, which means communities would also have a chance to have their say in energy plans,” notes SAFCEI executive director Francesca de Gasparis.