20 October 2009

The IFP's Dr Mario Oriani-Ambrosini MP has again requested Ms Vytjie Mentor MP, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises, to ensure that Eskom make available to Parliament its submission to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, as a matter of urgency.

In a letter to Ms Mentor, Dr Oriani-Ambrosini said yesterday: "I am writing to remind you that Eskom undertook to give us a copy of its application to Nersa after it had been decided upon, which it now has been, and to give us copies of all the contracts it entered into binding it to a long-term tariff arrangement, whether such tariffs are fixed or adjustable, for as long as they are not equally subjected to the same tariff regimen as ordinary South Africans are.

"As it was made in Committee, this request is both in respect of domestic and foreign entities. I would like to receive copies of such documents as soon as possible.

"Because of your ruling that Eskom could not disclose to us the intended tariff increase, the deliberations we held when Eskom appeared before us a few weeks ago could not perform the intended function of oversight. Eskom told us why they intended to do it, but not what they intended to do.

"Now that we know the measure of the tariff increase, which is way above what most of us thought it would be, we are finally in a position to interrogate Eskom's actions and exercise our constitutionally mandated oversight function."

In conclusion Dr Oriani-Ambrosini called on Ms Mentor to urgently facilitate a meeting between Eskom and the Portfolio Committee of Public Enterprises.

"I request that Eskom be recalled at the earliest possible time and that public hearings be held so that we may supplement our understanding of the present situation with information provided to the Committee by other stakeholders and experts, so that our oversight function does not rely exclusively on the information supplied by Eskom," said Dr Oriani-Ambrosini.

Contact: Dr Mario Oriani-Ambrosini MP, 082 556 0240.