Policy and Legislation

Private Power Generation Working Group

An Energy Working Group between Business (led by BUSA) and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), led by Deputy Director-General Jacob Mbele, which seeks to address the licensing challenges for private power generation, has been established.

On 24 February 2020, the Working Group met for the first time, and had a productive session. Arising from this meeting, the DMRE has committed to issuing the updated Schedule 2 to the Electricity Regulation Act, No. 4 of 2006.

The DMRE has also sent a clarification note to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa in respect of the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for distributed or “other” generation. In this note, Deputy Director-General Jacob Mbele clarified that this allocation in the IRP should include wheeling for own use to a linked site or group.

The Working Group has also agreed that it would try to draft some frameworks / guidelines internally to send to Members to assist with and explain the process.

Draft Constitution 18^th Amendment Bill

On 27 February 2020, BLSA submitted the position paper on the Draft Constitution 18^th Amendment Bill to the Parliamentary Committee. The Draft Constitution 18^th Amendment Bill seeks to amend the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Constitution) to explicitly state that expropriation without compensation is permissible in limited circumstances.

The position paper reiterates that BLSA does not support section 25 of the Constitution being amended because the Constitution already allows for expropriation without compensation, albeit implicitly. The position paper goes on to state that in the event that section 25 of the Constitution is amended, BLSA proposes that certain clarificatory amendments be made to the wording, which wording is noted in the position paper.

Beyond advocacy Fund

In line with BLSA’s commitment to work with Government towards building a capable state, BLSA entered into a partnership with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to establish the Beyond Advocacy Fund (BAF) which was established in terms of a Memorandum of Collaboration.

The BAF was conceived as a mechanism to promote partnership-based approaches between government and business to identify, test and replicate innovative and lasting solutions to major development challenges the country confronts. The result areas are:

• Developing entrepreneurship with a focus on the Small, Micro and Medium Enterprise sectors
• Improving education and training with a focus on Early Childhood Development and Foundation Phase schooling
• Supporting youth employment and;
• Enhancing the maintenance and delivery of municipal infrastructure

The initiative has given effect to three current projects:

1. Gen Africa/22 on Sloane is an entrepreneurship initiative that offers three programmes, namely, residency, incubation and accelerator; fundamentally providing subsidized office facilities, equipping entrepreneurs with business development knowledge and skills as well as expanding their networks and access to markets.
2. Kago Ya Bana Early Childhood Development (ECD) Enterprise Incubators, which aims to actualize a platform for enterprise sustainability for female microentrepreneurs in the ECD sector and creation of partnerships with Government.
3. NBI Green Skills intervention in TVET Colleges Initiative aims to entrench a gateway and possibilities of employment for South African youth through artisanal training.