Speaker, I rise today to tell you that we need to be honest to all South Africans about the energy crisis. We have seen that the poor people of Soweto are being punished.

Chair, I rise today to tell you that there are people and institutions that are holding our country hostage. People have become overnight billionaires and companies are making billions in energy while ordinary people in Soweto and others in the country now bear the brunt of these ridiculous proposed tariff increases. South Africa simply cannot afford these exorbitant prices for electricity.

Chair, let me say that the following people and institutions are hugely benefitting from coal. Coal is to South Africa what oil is to the Middle East. Eskom’s power is reliant on 85% of our coal. We need to sort out the Coal industry.

Shanduka has over the years become the biggest owner of coal mines. Shanduka was the frontrunner in terms of coal production, producing 50% of the Junior Mining Sector producer market share. Isn’t it strange that Honourable Ramaphosa is now leading the War Room on Energy?

We want the special pricing agreements for Coal between Shanduka/Glencore and Eskom to be open as the price increases form a large part of the crises we face today.

Chair, in the 1870’s there was a man Sammy Marks who out of obscurity became the “Uncrowned King of Coal”. Today I crown The Honourable Ramaphosa, South Africa’s “Undisputed King of Coal”.

The current King of Coal has made huge profits out of this country’s energy emergency and misery of the poor. I think it would be prudent to ask him exactly how much of the 300% increases we experienced over the last 6 years went to Shanduka and Glencore.

We hope that the King of Coal would be part of the independent inquiry into the mismanagement and failure of Eskom to supply cheap and reliable electricity. If Glencore is there for South Africa they need to be open and transparent to all of the people of South Africa.

Chair, in this crisis we must look at our immediate needs. We need to look at sectors that are not profitable, are energy guzzlers, contributing the least to GDP and are getting electricity at below cost of generation. Surely this makes sense.

We need to relook at the secret special pricing agreements that were signed and are so-called legacy contracts. These are contracts that are long term and are not governed by NERSA price increases. Their prices do not fluctuate with increases like ours but are coupled with the Aluminium spot price. So as we have been paying 300% more for electricity in the last 6 years their price has not risen significantly and they are still paying between 12 and 20 c/kWh.

You and I (The domestic consumer) who only use 25% of the generated electricity pay R1.60 kWh. That is 800% more than BHP Billiton. They are also not paying the environmental levy or carbon tax of 5c kWh like everybody else.

We need to look at the value add and make hard choices for the benefit and survival of this country the economy and jobs. Nobody will benefit if we have blackouts and the whole network collapses. We need to make sure no jobs are lost and the industry is fairly reimbursed for their loss of profit.

Chair, we need to take a hard look at our coal addiction and ask ourselves why we are so stubborn on supporting an industry that is killing us slowly. We know that we are running out of coal at Mpumalanga’s 12 sister power stations. Renewable energy needs to be considered diligently instead of a trillion Rand nuclear deal that we can just not afford.

These stations have been run too hard and have depleted their lifetime coal stocks. Coal will have to be sourced from the Waterberg but it is 600 km away. There is no railway line to transport it and trucking it in will cause chaos on our already congested roads.

Technology is fast changing and China has already started converting their coal fired power stations to gas. These 12 Mpumalanga power stations are close to gas pipelines and SASOL. Why are we not looking at possibilities to retrofitting and converting them so they burn a much cleaner energy source?

Speaker when we talk energy and electricity we are talking about the blood that makes an economy run and when we talk about power stations we talk about the heart of the economy. Without it we will not grow a healthy body and we will stay sick.

We will shed more jobs and become poorer every day while load shedding is implemented. Just raising the price is not going to cure the problem. I submit we need to start thinking pragmaticly and come up with solutions that will take us forward. We need to find the right medicine for this sick country.

I thank you.