National oil company PetroSA has decided to establish a multimillion-rand Integrated Energy Centre (IeC) for Qamata, a rural village in the Eastern Cape.

An IeC is a one-stop centre offering energy services to rural communities. It aims to provide access to affordable and high-quality energy services for impoverished rural communities – the concept is the brainchild of the Department of Energy.

In November 2012, PetroSA launched a multimillion-rand IeC at Mbizana, in the northern part of the Eastern Cape. The facil-ity was PetroSA’s first fully branded trading outlet.

The Mbizana IeC houses an information centre, a convenience store, a car wash, an energy services shop, ablution facilities and a fuel forecourt. It employs 15 people from the community of Mbizana.

The sod-turning ceremony for the Qamata IeC last month was attended by PetroSA executives and dignitaries that included Eastern Cape local government MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane.

The construction phase is planned to start in January 2014. The planning, design, engi-neering and procurement phase of the project is expected to be completed in December, after which, petrol, diesel, paraffin, candles and liquefied petroleum gas, besdies other products, will be sold.

The Qamata IeC will lead to job creation in the area and will also provide support for small, medium-sized and microenterprises in the energy sector through the provision of wholesale products.

The IeC will be owned and managed by a community cooperative that expects to plough back profits to development initiatives. It will serve communities within a 30 km radius of the IeC.

PetroSA group CEO Nosizwe Nokwe-Macamo says a feasibility study indicated that the Qamata IeC would be viable. The study had found that a site at Qamata station, along the R61, was deemed ideal for the proposed IeC, owing to its accessibility by other surrounding villages and adequate traffic volumes travelling on the R61 towards the towns of Cofimvaba and Queenstown.

She says that PetroSA, therefore, has a mandate to ensure all South Africans have access to energy services and security of fuel supply.

“This initiative is not only a commercial decision to introduce our energy products to this market but also a corporate respon-sibility response making energy services accessible to all communities and creating job opportunities, as well as empowering communities to change for the better. There is a dire need for affordable and high-quality energy products in the proposed IeC location and the surrounding villages,” Nokwe-Macamo states.