For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Lumkile Nkomfe.

Making headlines: Fuel prices to decrease in May, but LPG price to increase; Ramokgopa announces big increase in gas-to-power load factor to 50%-plus; And, DA says it supports redress, not ‘draconian’ Employment Equity Amendment Act, as court case looms

Fuel prices to decrease in May, but LPG price to increase

The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources has announced an adjustment of fuel prices based on current local and international factors with effect from Wednesday.

Both grades of petrol will decrease by 22c/l, while diesel will decrease by 41c/l and 42c/l.

Illuminating paraffin at retail level will decrease by 31c/l.

The price of liquefied petroleum gas will, however, increase by 46c/kg.

Spokesperson for the department Robert Maake notes that the lower oil price and the weaker rand against the dollar contributed to the decrease in fuel prices.

Ramokgopa announces big increase in gas-to-power load factor to 50%-plus

Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has announced that the load factor for proposed gas-to-power plants in South Africa will be increased from 25% to above 50%.

Speaking at the release of Eskom’s winter outlook, the Minister said the policy change had been made following feedback from the market on what would be required to stimulate gas demand to solve what he described as an economic rather than an electricity problem.

He said government is not resolving an electricity problem, it is resolving an energy problem and an economic problem: to be able to address the suppressed demand with regards to gas.

Ramokgopa’s statement comes amid ongoing discussions on how to solve South Africa’s so-called ‘gas cliff’; a scenario that will arise later this decade when natural gas supply to industry in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal will fall in line with tapering supply from Sasol’s Pande and Temane gas fields, in southern Mozambique.

Discussions on possible solutions have been under way for some time, including on the level of demand required to facilitate the creation of the infrastructure that would be required to replace the natural gas from Mozambique with imported liquefied natural gas.

And, DA says it supports redress, not ‘draconian’ Employment Equity Amendment Act, as court case looms

The Democratic Alliance expressed its readiness for tomorrow’s court action, in which it will argue for fair access to jobs and employment for all South Africans.

The party has launched a constitutional challenge, arguing that the Employment Equity Amendment Act discriminates “unfairly and unconstitutionally”.

DA Federal Council chairperson Helen Zille pointed out that while the Constitution allowed fair discrimination to achieve redress, it must meet the fairness benchmark set out in Section 9.

Zille described the Amendment Act as draconian and said it fell far short of the required constitutional benchmark.

She said it was “grossly unfair and gave totalitarian powers of social engineering” to Minister of Employment and Labour Nomakhosazana Meth, who she said would be able to set rigid national targets for every economic sector, without any regard to the context of specific firms, and impose extremely heavy fines and the risk of criminal conviction for failure to meet them.

Zille said this could no longer be classified as a target, arguing that this amounted to an enabling law for the Minister to set rigid quotas, which she said had previously been found by the courts to be unconstitutional.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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