Deliberations on the Final Mandate on the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill

Meeting report

Background

The Chairperson of the Standing Committee On Infrastructure, Ms Maseko, in her introductory remarks, gave Members a background of the matters around the Electricity Regulation Amendment (ERA) Bill. She informed them the Committees received the referred Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill. It was referred to both the Standing Committee on Infrastructure and the Standing Committee on Finance, Economic Opportunities and Tourism on 15 April 2024. The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) programme indicated the negotiating mandates on the ERA Bill were due by 2 May 2024. She stated this meant the committees had two weeks for public participation and submit a negotiating mandate to the NCOP. Given the technical nature of the ERA Bill and its amendments, the Office of the Speaker of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament (WCPP) was requested to write the Chairperson of the NCOP to request an extension so that the committees could request for public input and submit a negotiating mandate by 17 May 2024. The committees needed more time to do the public hearings. The committees further suggested the NCOP should withdraw the Bill and revive it in the new term if the extension could not be granted. The request was made on 15 April 2024.The Office of the Speaker made a follow-up on the request on 18 April 2024 to the Chairperson of the NCOP but there was no response yet. The Office of the Speaker also did a follow-up on 23 April 2024 because it had not received a response. The Office of the NCOP responded on 26 April 2024, indicating the matter was referred to the Chairperson of the Select Committee dealing with the ERA Bill. Then the Chairperson of the NCOP indicated he would respond to the committees once the Chairperson of the Select Committee had responded to the request.

On 29 April 2024, in the absence of the response from the NCOP chairperson and with the negotiating mandate looming on 2 May 2024, the Office of the Speaker was requested to write to the office of the NCOP Chairperson indicating the committees were withdrawing the request and further asking the Bill to be withdrawn and revived in the next parliamentary term, which would be the Seventh Parliament. The NCOP Chairperson was requested to respond to the Speaker by 15h30 on 30 April 2024. Unfortunately, there was no response received by the Speaker on the said date and time. The committees then received a response on the evening of 3 May 2024, a day after the NCOP Select Committee completed the deliberations on the negotiating mandate of the ERA Bill. The provinces were informed the final mandate was due by 14 May 2024. Both the chairpersons of the committees sought legal advice on whether they were still able to submit the final mandate indicating their stance on the Bill. Hence the final mandate meeting was arranged for 13 May 2024. She then asked for the input of the Members.

Discussion
Mr A Van der Westhuizen (DA) stated the courts have in the past provided guidelines that should be followed by the national and provincial parliaments on public hearings so that the public could make comments and Parliament processes those public inputs. From what the Chairperson stated, he said it was clear the guidelines were not followed and the timelines were too short for the committees to advertise. This was not the only bill that has found itself in this position. There were many cases where Members had pleaded with the NCOP not to rush things and asked it to postpone the bill to the next Parliament. Now the National Assembly and NCOP were pushing the legislation through at the very last stage compared to many other pieces of legislation that have been dragged slowly through this parliamentary term. What has been seen now is that the NCOP has been reduced to rubberstamp the decisions of the National Assembly and has not considered the input of the provinces. He proposed that Members should oppose this and in a separate letter write about their concerns on the lack of public participation that was followed in this process.

Ms S Little (GOOD) agreed with the recommendation from Van der Westhuizen saying her party had a number of concerns which were similar to what was heard and it would be irresponsible to go ahead and accept something like this because the courts had set guidelines to be followed for public hearings.

Mr I Sileku (DA) stated there has been a trend developing in the NCOP for the last two months where Members have been complaining about the same thing many times. In some committees, there chairpersons who were listening to them while in others they were not listened to. He suggested a strongly worded letter should be written to express how Members have been treated by the NCOP because as Members of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, they take law-making very seriously. He said the NCOP was not complying with its own rules that state that provinces should be given a minimum of eight weeks for public participation but now it tends to dictate to provinces on how they should go about getting the views of the residents of the Western Cape. He said the Western Cape Parliament has the right to follow its own public participation processes and the exit report should be clear about what needs to be corrected by the new NCOP Members of the Seventh Parliament in terms of law-making because provincial parliament Members are elected law-makers just like those of the NCOP. Provinces should be given the respect they deserve and ensure they fulfill their responsibilities to the best of their abilities because there have been cases where the National Assembly and NCOP lost [court] cases because of the manner in which they conducted public participation processes. One can’t keep doing the same thing and expecting different results.

Way forward

The Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance, Economic Opportunities and Tourism, Ms C Murray, spoke about the way forward. She said it was clear Members did not support the Bill for a number of reasons like insufficient time to conduct public hearings. The final mandate would reflect that accordingly and a letter of displeasure would also be sent.

Mr L Mvimbi (ANC) expressed the minority of view of the ANC to support the Bill.

Chairperson Maseko felt Mr Mvimbi did not hear the background she provided when she opened the meeting. She said the committees did not have an opinion on the Bill because it has not received any briefing on it. The view of the committees was that it was short-changed in doing due diligence to the processes of the Bill and the NCOP continued with the Bill without acknowledging the committees also had to process the Bill and make contributions to it from the side of the Western Cape.

Mr Mvimbi said despite the processes that still have to be followed about the Bill, the ANC would continue to support the Bill.

Ms Little shared with the committees her concerns regarding Bill. She sought further clarity on the central purchasing agency: its role and reporting structure; clarity on the day ahead market: how it would be housed, setup and operated; asked if the board of the central purchasing authority would be the regulator or if the minister would determine the rules; further recommend the definition and determination of the day ahead market; sought clarity on the number of undefined terms in the provisions of the Bill regarding the TSO and competitive multi-market; recommended the reinstatement of the tariff methodology; sought clarity on the imposition of penalties and upper limits; recommended the expansion of substations and transmission infrastructure that may be required; sought clarity on the powers of the minister to issue a revised integrated resource plan every three years and TSO to procure electricity supply when shortfalls occur; and sought clarity on where the new utility generation capacity could be licenced by NERSA and constructed when it is not included in the ministerial determination.

Chairperson Murray indicated the inputs be included in the minutes by the Committee procedural officer.

[Final Mandate Stage] Report of the Standing Committee on Finance, Economic Opportunities and Tourism and the Standing Committee on Infrastructure on the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill [B 23B – 2023] (NCOP), dated 13 May 2024

The Western Cape Provincial Parliament confers on the Western Cape’s delegation in the National Council of Provinces the Authority not to support the Bill. In accordance with Standing Rule 90, the African National Congress expressed its minority view to support the Bill.

The report was adopted – see attached

The meeting was adjourned.