By Simon Nare
President Cyril Ramaphosa has defended Operation Vulindlela Phase II initiative to reform local government system, saying it would ensure that basic services such as water and electricity were delivered efficiently and reliably.
Writing in his weekly letter on Monday, Ramaphosa said this part of delivery at the municipal level, as outlined in the initiative, was essential for economic growth and these reforms were designed to boost economic growth and create jobs.
Operation Vulindlela is a government-wide initiative to accelerate progress on economic reform.
The president said several metros have submitted plans for the turnaround of their water and electricity utilities that outline a clear pathway for the ring-fencing of water and electricity services.
He said progress against these action plans would enable these municipalities to access a new performance-based incentive from National Treasury to drive much greater investment in water and electricity infrastructure.
“The claims by some opposition parties that these reforms represent a form of privatisation are baseless and misguided. The measures we are taking are common sense reforms that will preserve public ownership of key infrastructure while introducing greater competition, dynamism and investment,” he said.
He added that a number of other countries introduced similar reforms which have powered their economies to higher levels of growth.
“Even as the world faces difficult economic headwinds, our economic reform agenda will create the conditions for higher growth and investment, while renewing our infrastructure for generations to come,” he said.
The president said the government released a progress report on Operation Vulindlela last week that showed that the economic reform programme was making steady progress and opening the way to more rapid, inclusive and sustainable growth and job creation.
Ramaphosa said the initiative was adopted by the sixth administration to remove the binding constraints that have long held back the economy’s growth: an unreliable energy supply, inefficient rail and ports, high data costs and a visa system that had deterred investors and tourists.
“We have made significant progress since then in clearing these obstacles with a clear view to enhance economic growth. The reduction in load-shedding over the past year was supported by the reforms that we introduced to unlock private investment in electricity generation, while reforms in the telecommunications sector have brought down the cost of mobile data.
“We have reduced the turnaround times for approval processes for water use licences and energy projects, made great progress in clearing the visa application backlog and expanding the eVisa scheme,” he said.
In April this year, he said the government commenced the next phase of the initiative to build on the successes and initiate a second wave of reform.
He added that the government was moving quickly towards a competitive electricity market, which would introduce greater competition in electricity generation and reduce the chances of experiencing load- shedding again.
“The reform underway in the energy sector will introduce greater choice for consumers and drive down costs. As part of this process, work is underway to establish an independent Transmission System Operator within the next five years, in line with the Electricity Regulation Act,” he said.
The president said significant progress has been made towards enabling greater investment in the transmission network, including from the private sector, with regulations to govern these investments.
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