SA must cut red tape to close energy gap, ANC suggests

SOUTH Africa must accelerate plans to generate more electricity itself, buy more energy from private producers and make it easier for power-hungry mining companies to build their own plants, according to a draft economic policy document compiled by the nation’s governing party.

Projects outlined in the government’s Integrated Resources Plan won’t be sufficient to end rolling blackouts, and the energy blueprint should be reviewed, the African National Congress said in the document seen by Bloomberg.

It called for privately built plants to be designated as strategic infrastructure projects, which would make it easier for them to get environmental approval, and for registration requirements to be streamlined.

“Policies are urgently required to increase investment in electricity-generation capacity and the energy mix both by public and private entities,” the party said in the latest version of one of several documents that are being drafted before its national policy conference later this year.