Nersa must enforce existing powers rather than impose additional rules on struggling municipalities – AfriForum
AfriForum warns that the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (Nersa) attempts to resolve the country’s electricity distribution crisis in struggling municipalities through implementing additional reporting requirements will be futile. In its comprehensive comments on the regulator’s proposed implementation of key performance indicators (KPIs), the civil rights organisation argues that the regulator should drop its KPI plan and instead focus on enforcing existing legislation and adhere to established standards to address distribution issues in municipalities. AfriForum submitted its comments on the plan today.
According to Morné Mostert, Manager of Local Government Affairs at AfriForum, AfriForum supports Nersa’s objective of improving the quality and reliability of municipal electricity supply but maintains that there are already ample technical standards, regulatory powers, and licence conditions in place to achieve this goal. AfriForum contends that the problem lies not in a lack of powers and conditions, but rather in their consistent monitoring and enforcement.
“The collapse of municipal electricity infrastructure is not the result of a lack of regulations. It is the result of a lack of regulatory enforcement. Nersa already has the authority to investigate municipalities, enforce licence conditions and suspend or revoke licences where municipalities repeatedly fail to meet their obligations. Instead of creating yet another reporting framework, the regulator should rather use the powers it already holds.”
AfriForum has previously instituted legal proceedings to compel Nersa to convene a tribunal to investigate violations of municipal licence conditions. According to the civil rights organisation, this demonstrates that challenges facing the electricity sector stem not from an absence of legal authority, but from the inconsistent exercise of that authority.
In its submission, AfriForum recommends that Nersa institute mandatory technical compliance audits to assess whether municipalities are adhering to their existing licence conditions, recognised technical standards and statutory obligations. Furthermore, the organisation proposes the implementation of prudency assessments to evaluate the efficiency, as well as the responsible and financially sustainable management of municipalities’ electricity distribution operations.
“Communities do not need more reports that merely confirm that their municipality is failing. They need a regulator that acts when municipalities fail. Performance indicators should serve as an early warning system that triggers regulatory intervention. It must not be just another set of statistics documenting the continued decline of municipal electricity infrastructure,” Mostert concludes.
AfriForum has urged Nersa to strengthen the proposed rules by placing greater emphasis on compliance verification, enforcement and accountability, arguing that meaningful improvements in electricity distribution will only be achieved when municipalities are held accountable for failing to meet the standards that already exist.
