the seeds of which were planted many years ago, we cannot undo the mistakes that were made in the past. the capacity that was not build the damage that was done to our power plant due to a local lack of maintenance and the effects of state capture on our institutions. what we can do is to fix the problem today to keep the lights on tomorrow and for generations to come. in july, last year, i announced a clear action plan to address the energy crisis. this was to address the electricity shock, crow of 40026000 megawatts the plan outlined 5 key interventions fest to fix as comes coal fired power stations and improve the availability of existing supply up

2nd to enable and also to accelerates investment in generation capacity. thirdly, to accelerate procurement of new capacity from renewables, gas and battery storage, and fall to unleash businesses and households to invest in rooftop solar. the 5th, one, fundamentally to transform the electricity sector up to achieve long term energy security. now, many experts, many experts agree that this plan is the most realistic roots to and load shedding. now, during the last 6 months,

we have made important progress in emp, the implementation of this plan. we have taken steps to improve the performance of s. com's existing power stations, so that the coal fired power stations that provide 80 percent of our electricity produced the amount of electricity for which they were designed. under this new, it's new brought as calm as deploying people and resources to improve the reliability of the 6 power stations that have contributed most to load shedding as calm is urgently fast tracking the construction of a temporary solution to bring back 3 units at could see the pass station following

the collapse of the chimney or the flu. last year while simultaneously repairing the permanent structure. we are rebuilding the skills that have been lost over time. and we have already recruited a number of skilled personnel to senior levels to be deployed at under performing post stations. and this is where south africans have come to the 4 wall entirely and offering their services. and it has just been amazing. the way south africans had rallied together to say, this is our common problem and we must work together to resolve it and not stand on roof tops and just curtis size, but find ways of resolving this problem. the engineering

council of south africa has offered to give as much assistance as required by deploying engineers to work with the management teams at pos stations. we have deep skills and expertise right here in south africa. we just need to use them. national treasury is finalizing a solution to address s cons, 400000000000 land dead to bed and they are doing so in a manner that is equitable and fair to our stakeholders, which will enable the utility to make the necessary investments in maintenance, as well as the transmission government will support s. com to secure additional funding to continue purchasing diesel for the rest of the financial. yes,

this should reduce the severity of load shedding as s. com will be able to use its diesel round plans when the system is under fe. as come has launched the program to buy excess power from private generators and has already secured some $300.00 megawatts, also from neighboring countries around us. the south african police service has established a dedicated team with senior leadership to deal with the pervasive corruption and theft at several power stations that has contributed to the poor performance of a number of these stations. and intelligence driven operation at s. com related sites have, has also so far resulted in the address of

a number of people and we are counting 43 and going upwards as part of the broader reform process. the restructuring of f s. com that we previously announced and spoke about here in this parliament is proceeding and the national transmission company. will it soon be operational with an independent bought? later this year, we will table the electricity regulation amendment bill to this parliament to transform the energy sector and establish a competitive electricity market. like what is done in other countries. as indicated in july last year and with a view to addressing low shed in crisis. we're going to proceed with the rollout of rooftop solar panels and his budget speech. the minister of

finance. well outline how households will be assisted and how businesses will be able to benefit from a tax incentive. and there's no toyota is working on adjustments to the bounce back loan scheme to help small businesses to invest in solar equipment and to allow banks and develop and finance institutions to borrow directly from the scheme to facilitate the leasing of solar panels to their customers. one of the po, tend reforms we have been marked up on is to allow private developers to generate electricity that are now more than $100.00 projects, which i expected to provide over $9000.00 megawatts of new capacity over time.

and number of companies that have participated in the renewable energy program will soon enter construction and will deliver a total of $2800.00 megawatts of new capacity. an s. com will procure emergency power that can be deployed within 6 months. to close the immediate gap, we are investing in new transmission lines and sub stations, especially in areas such as the eastern cape, northern cape and western cape. all of these measures will result in a massive increase in powered up to the grid over the next 12 to 18 months and also beyond. now this power up will be in line with our diverse mix of energy sources, including our current coal fired power stations,

sola wind gas, nuclear hydro, and that she storage. to fully implement this plan, we need a center coordination. and we also need to take decisive action. some of the processes have been held up by regulations, had been held up by various processes that are embedded in the architecture that we have regarding energy. in a time of crisis, we need a single point of command and a single line of much. just as we address the cause of the crisis, we also need to address its impact. now the crisis has progressively evolved to affect every part of society. we must act to lessen the

impact of the crisis on pharma, on small businesses, on our water infrastructure, and our transport network, and a number of other areas and facilities that support our people's lives. now and considering all of these matters and the crisis that we are in the national disaster management center has consequently classified the energy crisis and its impact as a disaster. we are therefore declaring a national state of disaster to respond to the electricity crisis and its effect the minister of corporate governance and traditional affairs

has just got stated the declaration of the state of disaster which will begin with immediate effect. now what will the state of disaster enable us to do? it will enable us to provide practicum measures that we need to take to support businesses and number of businesses, for instance, in food production storage, a retail supply chain, including for the rollout of generators and solar panels, an uninterrupted power supply. where technically possible, it will also enable us to exempt critical infrastructure such as hospitals and water treatment plans from load shedding. and it will enable

us to accelerate energy projects and limited regulatory requirements while maintaining rigorous environmental protection as well as procurement principles and technical standards. now the auditor general worldly, brought in to ensure continuous monitoring of expenditure in order to guard against any abuses of funds needed to attend to this disaster. now to deal more effectively and urgently with the challenges that confronts us, i will appoint a minister of electricity in the presidency to assume full responsibility for overseeing all aspects of the electricity crisis response.

you better allison, including their work, all the energy national energy crisis committee. now the minister will focus full time on the work with the s come board and the management on ending load shedding and ensuring that the energy action plan is implemented without delay. now so as to remove any confusion so as to remove any confusion, the minister of public enterprises will remain the shareholder representative of s. com and steered the restructuring of s. com and ensure the establishment of the transmission company oversee the implementation

of the just and a good program and oversee the establishment of the s o e holding company. now the process of restructuring government will give us an opportunity to determine the positioning of various areas of responsibility and how best the various ministries and departments can best serve our national objectives. now we are focusing our attention on the energy crisis right now. and we will address the restructuring of government in due course. this is necessary because an effective response to this crisis involves several different departments. as well as entities that require coordination

from the center of government. we will be including other social partners in an effective structure, similar to the one that we set up to drive the vaccine rollout extra. ordinarily circumstances do call for extraordinary measures. now we have cooperated extremely well with a number of roll players. that energy crisis is an existential threat to our economy and to the social fabric of our country. we must therefore spare no effort and we must allow no delay in implementing the measures that are going to enable us to address the crisis. and i'm doing this because so much as we have the various regulations,

the various laws that coordination, particularly when it comes to addressing the electricity crisis, is an important instrument that i need to enable us to address this process hands. we will have this minister who will day and night. just be focusing on this case is that we are dealing with as we take these actions to resolve the energy crisis. we are mindful of the risks that climate change poses to our society. extreme weather event in the form of doubt, floods and wildfires increasingly pose a risk to the health well being on the safety of our people. we will continue our

just transition to a low carbon economy at a pace our country is able to keep up with an at their pace we can afford and in a manner that a shows energy security. we will undertake our just transition in a way that opens up the possibility of new investments, new industrialization, and that above all creates new jobs. the presidential tri met commission is guiding much of this work. and in doing so, building a new model for inclusive and collective decision making, incorporating the individuals workers and communities that are most affected in the

transition. much as i'm the chairman of this commission, i'm able to assist that by mister violet mussa, who used to be a minister in our government through they just energy transition investment plan. 1.5 trillion rend will be invested in our economy over the next 5 years in new frontiers. new sectors of our economy, such as renewable energy, green hydrogen, electric vehicles, fuel cells, and you name them. this new sectors are emerging in our economy and are emerging quite far in the green energy and electric vehicles. many other countries are already moving towards manufacturing electric vehicles and we cannot be left behind as south africans as we move on. we

will be able, yes to address all these new technologies and industries because this new period, ashes in and number of opportunities. it asked us in number of opportunities to create jobs. a number of projects are already underway, including the development of the new facility by cecil at visible by the northern cape, the prescott power reserve in the free state. and the hydrogen valley initiative limpopo and was not up. the northern cape has already attracted well over 100000000000 brand in investments in renewable energy projects. now these projects, no doubt, are going to create a lot of jobs. there's

a lot of new investments that are happening in the northern cape. it just ushered in a great deal of hope among the people of the northern cape. these and other massive investments and renewable energy will create jobs and stimulate local economies not only in the northern cape, but also in the eastern cape. the western came in pull mulanda, turning even the most arid desert into a giant of energy sauce. above all, our just transition would prioritize workers and communities in vulnerable industries to ensure that no one is left behind. our economy needs to grow much faster if we are to meaningfully reduce unemployment and in terms of unemployment, unemployment in our country is

a structural fall of challenge and problem. but we need to address it in the fate of the nation address. last year, we spoke of our intention to forge a comprehensive social compact that would join all social partners in a common program to rebuild our economy and to enable higher growth. but i must say tonight that we have not been able to conclude a comprehensive social compact in the time frame we had envisaged. because a noun and number of news that constance is emerged that made it difficult for social partners to forge a consensus. but the good thing is, the good thing is the social partners have expressed their intention and i've been talking to them up to just yesterday, both labor,

business and community. they have expressed a clear intention to conclude a social compact and have continued to work on a framework to enable joined action in key areas such as energy, transport, logistics, employment creation, and skills development. i have no reason to doubt their commitment that they have expressed to me. they have also identified a number of areas in terms of localization, social protection, crime and corruption. while we remain committed to forging a new consent us amongst all sectors of our society. we have also undertaken practical collaboration is in specific areas. let me say it is not like processes of consensus building have not been going on. they

had a number of other compacts have been concluded amongst our social partners. we see the commitment of our social partners in the company that have been forged to fight covered. 19 pandemic undertake the largest vaccination program where we worked very closely with business and labor. we have seen it in initiative like the solidarity fund that mobilized society, that mobilized citizen activism and the funding to achieve common goals and in partnership to an end to end gender based violence and family side. and also to respond to the effects of climate change. we have seen the benefits of this approach to promote investment and to develop must the plans in

sectors of the economy such as automotives, clothing and textiles. many of us will remember that clothing and textiles had almost been wiped out in our country. social partners got together and decided that we've got to save our clothing and textile industry. we've seen them work together in poultry and sugar agriculture and global business services. there must have plans that have been concluded are supporting that revival of various sectors of our economy. they're also bringing about investment by the private sector and you're doing new jobs and supporting livelihoods. we are pleased that the social partners, particularly business, has been providing support to implemented that in energy action plan,

in the spirit of social compact. he. similarly, we have developed a close working relationship with both labor and community based organizations in supporting other aspects of the energy crisis response. just as energy is essentially economic growth. so is another important area of south african life, a reliable war to supply and efficient transport. and road infrastructure system. our network has suffered for many years of an investment. it has suffered from lack of maintenance. it is also suffered from criminal activity and inefficiency. now to our death this last year we adopted the national rail policy to guide the modernization and reform of the radio sector. providing amongst other things for 3rd party access to our network. those who have money

that they should come and participate without diluting the important role that is played by government. well, working across government to develop a chance that roadmap, that will translate our policy commitments into reality, including the restructuring of the times that freight rail to create a separate infrastructure manager to the rated network by october of this year. concert and private sector companies will conclude partnerships at the durbin and we'll hook term in a container terminals to enable new investment in our ports and improve the efficiency. now this will help our ports to regain their global position as some of the most efficient ports. once again,

there has been great success, for instance in re positioning port elizabeth automotive termino, which has more than doubled its capacity and has already seen an increase in exports. many more vehicles destined for out for overseas markets are rolling off that port. elizabeth automotive, terminal. cons that is also rehabilitating is either locomotives and expanding is fleet. and soon there will be a solution to the challenge that yes, we've been facing with regards to getting our locomotives to move. once again. we have phase challenges and the transportation of commuters on passenger rail. and this has been raised sharply by trade unions with us who represent the working

people of our country. now, following the restructuring that is underway in process, 13 commuter rail lines have been re opened significantly reducing the cost of travel for many workers. the reliable supply of water is essential for the well being of people and the growth of our economy. as i drink my water now now to ensure water security now and into the future. the department of water and sanitation is leading the process of investing in major infrastructure projects across the country. and the water department of water ministry has

a deep knowledge of the water network throughout our country. and they've already made our plans for various water systems in our country. and what we need to do now after being delayed for several years, full scale construction works for the less so to highlands phase 2 project will commands this year. i will be going to la soto with a prime minister of list. so to, to go and see the works that underway. the list, so to highlands project is critical for a shorting security of water supply to how doing free state milan got northwest as well as the northern cape several decades after it was 1st proposed. and 9 years after a sword turning ceremony was held,

the 1st phase of homes invoice, blue water project, was start this year. the next, the very coming financial year was start this very year. now this phase which involves construction of the in double double arm, goddamn irrigation infrastructure, and the distribution of water took surrounding communities would be financed by government. the next phase to be constructed will be the leilani damn, which will include a high hydropower station major projects to increase the capacity of the klan william. damn the hazel mir. damn. that's an any dam will in.