Operation Vulindlela reforms to end century-old monopolies and open markets

Government has taken landmark decisions this year through Operation Vulindlela (OV) reforms that will end century-old monopolies, open markets to competition and private investment, and unlock higher productivity and faster growth.

National Treasury Director-General, Dr Duncan Pieterse, said this while addressing investors on the progress made by OV at the Old Mutual Investment Group “Tomorrow” Investment Summit in Cape Town, on Wednesday.

OV is a joint delivery initiative of The Presidency and National Treasury, designed to accelerate high-impact structural reforms and drive economic recovery in South Africa.

Pieterse highlighted the lifting of the licensing requirement in 2022, which opened the market to new private renewable energy generators.

“This prompted a surge of investment into renewable energy projects and brought substantial new capacity onto the national grid. It also helped to end the electricity crisis.

“That drive for new renewable energy investment continues, but the constraint is now the national grid itself, which needs more than R100 billion of investment to expand and modernise,” he said.

He stressed that most of this investment will have to come from private investors.

“Opening up the market also requires a level playing field, where new private generators have equal access to the grid, and a transmission and system operator that dispatches private power on competitive terms with Eskom power, so that prices come down over time,” Pieterse said.

He added that the National Transmission Company of South Africa has already been created as a subsidiary of Eskom. 

The next step is to establish it as a fully independent, state-owned Transmission System Operator that owns and controls the transmission assets and provides open, non-discriminatory access to the grid, enabling generators to compete on equal terms.

“The same goes for the unbundling of the ports authority from Transnet, which took a major step forward when Cabinet recently approved the approach to the unbundling.

“There too, opening up the market and levelling the playing field for terminal operators across our ports will help to reduce the cost of trading with the rest of the world and improve South Africa’s global competitiveness,” Pieterse said.

Freight Rail

In freight rail, the market has been opened to private rail operators, and the first privately owned trains have started testing the lines.

Pieterse said government also needs a fully independent Rail Infrastructure Manager to ensure a level playing field between Transnet and privately owned operators.

“OV continues to make significant progress in other key areas. To note just a few: in visas, the Electronic Travel Authorisation system was officially launched in August.

“It will improve tourist visa processing and, ultimately, work and study visa processing, while phase two of the Trusted Employer Scheme will fast-track the recruitment of highly skilled personnel and make South Africa a more attractive investment destination,” he said.

Pieterse said that in water, the revised water pricing strategy is in place, new raw water use charges have been approved, and progress has been made in implementing the National Water Action Plan and establishing the National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency.

In freight logistics, Transnet has issued a request for qualifications for a strategic partner for the multibillion-rand Manganese Export Corridor.

He added that digital public infrastructure reform is advancing, with Home Affairs unveiling a digital ID prototype and MzansiXchange data sharing being piloted within government.

MzansiXchange is not a central data repository. It acts as a secure bridge: a structured and governed exchange that allows departments to retain ownership of their data while sharing it with other authorised entities when needed. -SAnews.gov.za

 

 

Source: Original report at SAnews.gov.za.