Ramokgopa: Government to address high electricity tariffs:
The electricity and energy ministry and the South African Local Government Association (Salga) are working to reform the electricity pricing structure and reduce high tariffs imposed by municipalities.
Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa told a media briefing on Monday that exorbitant tariffs exacerbate energy security gaps, leaving the poor to bear the brunt of high prices and forcing them to endure longer hours of load reduction.
Load-reduction refers to scheduled electricity blackouts in areas where there is high usage and illegal connections.
Ramokgopa said the failure to address high tariffs would leave communities facing longer periods without electricity and would provoke their anger.
“We have seen a number of initiatives on the side of municipalities that have enraged communities,” the minister said, referring to the R200 surcharge for prepaid electricity users in Johannesburg which was implemented at the start of July to fund the maintenance of existing infrastructure and new projects. The surcharge was put under review after its introduction triggered a public outcry.
“We really do not want to publicly engage on the merit of whether the R200 is needed or not, what we want to do is to find a more enduring and robust solution to this tariff problem,” Ramokgopa said on Monday.
His department was working on a plan to improve the electricity distribution system in collaboration with municipalities to help address poor management, reduce debt and increase investment in infrastructure.
He said municipalities’ failure to maintain their infrastructure was becoming a burden to consumers, with customers unable to afford rising electricity costs. While municipalities had the right to put up trariffs, the minister said he would not “fold his arms and watch the municipalities unjustifiably increase prices”.
“There has been an exponential rise in the cost of electricity. Our electricity pricing plan needs to kick in and that is the primary preoccupation of the work of the ministry now working with Mr [Monde] Bala from the Eskom side, the distribution side working with municipalities and also, by definition, working with Salga,” Ramokgopa said.
Bala is power utility Eskom’s group executive for distribution.
Ramokgopa called on the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to play a role in resolving the tariff issue and safeguarding consumer interests.
“Nersa has a duty to protect the consumer — they have a duty to interrogate the proposed tariff increases from Eskom and also from municipalities,” he said.
Ramokgopa said his ministry and the regulator would come up with a payment structure which was fair to both the poor and more affluent consumers.
A more affordable and reliable power supply would promote business growth and boost South Africa’s economy, he said, adding that the government’s focus would be on ensuring sustainable access to electricity while making it affordable for everyone.
The pathology of power in Zambia: How citizens can reclaim their clout:
Growing up in Zambia, I often travelled by minibus, the main mode of public transport. I was always amazed at — and quite ashamed about doing nothing about it — the way the conductor, the “call boy” in common parlance, would collaborate with the driver to terrorise an entire busload of adults. The two villains had the power of monarchs over everybody at the minibus stations and in the buses.
The situation was worse during the rush hour when workers were either going to or returning from work. With buses in short supply, people struggled to get into whatever moveable assemblage of machinery passed for a vehicle. The historical humiliation suffered by many Zambians at the hands of minibus drivers and call boys would make for a good PhD study!
The question that bothered me then, and still does now, is how does it come to pass that physically fit and mentally sound adults would cower before a young, scruffy call boy simply because of his official role? As for women and girls, the abuse that was heaped upon them by this breed of lower-end workers was simply abominable.
Occasionally, a passenger would rant against either the driver or the conductor. But they were the exception rather than the rule. Typically, the passengers cowered before those two — the driver and his conductor were the lords of the bus.
Today, as an adult, I have, I think, acquired some measure of understanding of why and how many people chose to be abused and intimidated by minibus drivers and their conductors. It is due to the simple fact that each person got onto the minibus as an individual — one who could never be sure of the solidarity of the other passengers in the event of a tussle with the driver and conductor.
On the other hand, the conductor could almost always be sure of the full support of the driver. He knew very well that the driver could easily offload any passenger who refused to do his bidding. He knew too that whatever extra money he made by overloading the bus would be split between the two of them, with the driver getting the lion’s share, of course.
However, the passengers — who were many and had more money between them than the driver and his conductor — because they had boarded the minibus as individuals, and did not care to gang up against the driver and conductor, ended up with no power over them. Thus, it came to pass that those two individuals, the minibus driver and his call boy, oppressed and abused the majority, who collectively had more financial and other clout than them, precisely because the two acted as a team.
Over time, the drivers and their call boys came to regard themselves as having power over their passengers, and passengers came to accept their lot as individuals pleading for a seat in a minibus administered by the pair. And no one would question this strange, lopsided and quite false distribution of power.
In fact, passengers would support the driver and his callboy in the abuse and oppression of fellow passengers by aiding in instructing others to squeeze themselves into horribly uncomfortable positions as the minibus was packed beyond the legal limit. This usually happened when someone was late and would selfishly force other passengers to “move” so that they too could board the overloaded bus.
In the minibus industry, the real power (money) is in the hands of passengers. If all potential passengers decided not to board minibuses, the industry would collapse. The minibuses move around and make money only because there are people who decide to use them as a means of transport. Inside the minibus, real social power is in the hands of the passengers — as a collective, not as individuals.
Passengers in any fully occupied minibus, acting in unison, could easily control the driver and his callboy. They have, when they choose to act as a collective, more physical, psychological and cultural power over the driver and the call boy than the pair have over them.
It is the passengers’ lack of awareness of their superiority, in both monetary and physical terms, and unwillingness to act as a collective, that produces this illusion of the superiority and power of the driver and call boy. The pair suffer from a mental and spiritual disease occasioned by a false sense of power. They have no real power over the passengers. It is the passengers who, unwittingly, have transferred their collective power to these two villains.
It is not too difficult to see how similar laws operate when one considers the situation in many countries today. Let us, for a moment, imagine Zambia as a minibus. Our money would be the vote. The minibus driver would be the president. The call boy would be the political party in power. The passengers are the citizens of Zambia.
When we choose to travel in any minibus, we actually decide at that moment to be “citizens” of that bus, and to “vote” for that bus’s driver to be our “president”, for the time that we are travelling to our destination. The call boy of the minibus we choose to travel in is the “political party” that organises us inside the bus as “citizens”.
The driver and call boy are on their best persuasive behaviour when they are seeking passengers (votes). As soon as the minibus is full, the balance of power shifts. If we choose to act as individuals inside the minibus (our country), the political party in power (the call boy) and the president (the driver) will abuse and oppress us all at will.
In fact, if we allow the callboy (political party) to overload (extreme oppression) the minibus (country), it might crash (conflict or civil war) and many could die, including the driver and his call boy (president and his party)!
Inside the bus, just like inside our country, what keeps the majority of people, who have the real power, in their condition of powerlessness, abuse and oppression by a villainous minority is their inability to act as a collective, in solidarity with each other.
Thus, the pathology of power is perpetuated — those who actually have no power act and live as if they do have it and those who have real power act and behave as if they are powerless. Oppression and abuse are sustained by this perverse, inverted logic.
Of course, vast protective trenches are dug by those who pretend to have power when, in reality, they are the powerless ones: they exploit the media; invoke culture and tradition; call upon the gods and generally weave a complex false consciousness of power.
These powerless people create titles and big labels for themselves — Majesties, Excellencies, Lords, Honourable this or that etc, in their effort to hoodwink the masses, in whom real economic and political power resides, into being obedient to them.
They manufacture a language and a manner which conveys this sense of false power. And precisely because those with real power — the masses — continue to act, by and large, as individuals, these villains continue to lord it over them.
Besides the family, schools, churches, prisons and hospitals, there are the police, army, intelligence establishment and all sorts of other institutions to enforce this false power over those who actually wield the power in society.
To claim the right to use this infrastructure of force in society, these powerless people need a “constitution” to spell out why, how and when they can use force to compel those with real power to behave as the powerless wish. For example, in the minibus, there is a silent, unwritten constitution which distributes “power” between the driver and his call boy and the passengers. Of course, the first article of this constitution is that you should never enter the minibus if you have no money to pay for the ride.
How, then, can the passengers liberate themselves from the abuse and oppression they receive at the hands of the driver and his call boy? As in any country, the first step is to understand where actual power resides — in the driver and his call boy or the passengers? The obvious answer is in the passengers.
The second step is to grow this awareness of power among the passengers and to mobilise solidarity among them. The third and final step is the need for the passengers to cast away the fear of the oppressive and abusive villainous minority.
When these three conditions are met — knowledge of where real power lies, mobilisation of solidarity, and casting away the veil of fear of the oppressors then, and only then, can the liberation of the oppressed take place. At this point, the abused and oppressed are ready to reclaim their power from the villains.
And, at this point, a completely new Constitution can be written — one which transfers power to its rightful owners — the citizens.
In Zambia today, most of us appear to be content to be abused and oppressed by a tiny minority. As long as this situation continues, we are not ready to reclaim our power from the villains.
Sishuwa Sishuwa is a senior lecturer in history at Stellenbosch University. @ssishuwa.
IIA SA to host Annual National Conference 2024:
The internal audit profession is transforming and navigating a journey up the organisational value chain to greater impact. To address the ongoing need to elevate the impact of internal audit, we are pleased to announce the highly anticipated Annual National Conference 2024 hosted by the Institute of Internal Auditors South Africa (IIA SA) and scheduled to take place from 12 to 14 August 2024 at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg.
The IIA SA Annual National Conference is the premier internal audit event of the year, according to the organisation. The conference runs over 2.5 days and features plenary sessions as well as track sessions, with leading speakers in the internal auditing profession who will share their views on best practice in internal auditing, emerging issues and a variety of business and personal development topics.
The annual conference has become a tradition with members of the internal audit community and is loyally supported each year. On average, over 1 000 delegates attend the conference per year and it is the largest gathering of internal audit professionals in southern Africa, affording sponsors and exhibitors the best possible exposure to this niche target audience.
The IIA SA Annual National Conference 2024 will feature an impressive line-up of renowned speakers, including industry experts, thought leaders and seasoned practitioners. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage in interactive sessions, participate in practical workshops and network with peers from diverse backgrounds, creating a valuable platform for knowledge sharing and professional growth.
As organisations navigate complex business landscapes and face increasing risks, internal auditors are playing a critical role in providing assurance, governance and insights. To effectively address the challenges and capitalise on the opportunities in this evolving landscape, internal auditors must stay at the forefront of industry trends and adopt practical solutions. To this end, the IIA SA Annual Hybrid Conference 2024 aims to equip professionals with the knowledge, tools and strategies necessary to excel in their roles and elevate the position and practice of internal auditing.
The conference will be attended by international keynote speaker, Anthony Pugliese, President and CEO of The Institute of Internal Auditors, who will address delegates on the topic of: “The state of the internal audit profession”.
Future expert researcher and strategy consultant, Jonathan Cherry, Founder of Cherryflava Media, will discuss how the internal audit function can better serve organisations in a rapidly changing business environment.
Ruth Doreen Mtubebe, Head of Internal Audit at Umeme and Chairman of AFIIA, will deliver a keynote presentation on the topic of: “The triple threat internal auditor”.
Together, we will explore the following key themes and topics:
- Internal audit strategy: Having recently undergone a strategy project, Ganas Nardhamuni, Chief Internal Auditor at Nedbank, will talk about the topic of GIA strategy – thinking of the big picture. Similarly, Dr Sizwe Nyenyiso, Senior Director, Internal Audit at Nelson Mandela University will speak about strategic alignment of the internal audit function. Nyenyiso has recently completed a doctorate internal audit study that articulates a framework for strategic alignment of internal auditing in the public sector.
- Positioning of internal audit: Jenita John, Audit, Governance, Risk Management Professional – Seasoned Executive/Non-Executive Director/Consultant will dive into lessons learned from corporate failures and the implications for the internal audit profession and professionals. Dr Peter Goss, Phd, Corporate Governance Advisor and Forensic Auditor at PG Governance, will also delve into international developments in corporate governance and the impact on the internal audit profession in the past, present and future.
- Emerging technology: Johan Steyn, Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence Advocate and Global Speaker at AI for Business, will examine how AI is redefining internal auditing.
- Trusted advisors: Monwabisi Kula, Chief Audit Executive at Afrocentric, will cover the topic of becoming a trusted advisor.
In honour of Women’s Month, the conference will also feature a “Women in Internal Audit Panel Discussion” moderated by Deputy Board Chair, Lusanda Ncoliwe, focusing on the topic of diversity, equity and inclusion in the internal audit profession. Panellists include Arlene-Lynn Volmink, CEO of IIA SA; Besky Maluleka-Ngunjiri, CAE at Harmony Gold; Moleboheng Masakona, Board Director at IIA SA and CFO at CIB Finance – Transaction Banking at Standard Bank Group; Pranisha Rama, Accounting Lecturer at the University of Johannesburg; and Zulpha Abrams, Director of Nexia SAB&T.
The conference will be held in a hybrid format, allowing attendees to choose between attending virtually or in-person, depending on their preferences and location. The virtual component will enable global participation, fostering a truly international dialogue and bringing together diverse voices and perspectives of the profession.
The conference will also feature a gala dinner where delegates and guests will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the IIA SA in a diamond jubilee event.
The conference event will be followed by two post-conference workshops featuring the topics: “What you need to know about the Global Internal Audit Standards” by Tichaona Zororo, CIA, CISA, CISM, CDPSE, CRISC, CRMA, CGEIT, COBIT Certified Assessor and Director at EGIT; and “Integrating AI into internal audit practices” by Johan Steyn. The objectives of the masterclasses are to assist practising internal audit professionals with practical solutions and distil actionable insights from theory on relevant and impactful topics of interest.
Registration for the Internal Audit Hybrid Conference 2024 is now open. Delegates may contact events.info@iiasa.org.za or register online at bit.ly/IIASAAnnualNationalConference2024.
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