IWANT to begin this column by profusely apologising to residents and businesses that were unable to purchase electricity tokens from third party vendors due to extensive vandalism to fibre cables. Technicians worked speedily to resolve the issue.
Customers can now purchase prepaid electricity tokens from third party vendors. All Sizakala Centres are also now operational. The WhatsApp electricity chatbot (076 791 2449) is also working. We urge the public to report those who damage and steal cables to the police as this affects functionality of basic services. On a more positive note, the Municipality hosted the eThekwini Energy Transformation Summit recently which is the first of its kind in the country. As the leadership of the Municipality, we viewed this gathering as a landmark experience that provided us with lasting solutions to the perennial energy crisis. It provided us with an opportunity to align ourselves with national government’s position that energy transition must be just and support national development aspirations including decent work for all, social inclusion and the eradication of poverty.
The National Development Plan envisages that by 2030, South Africa will have an energy sector that provides reliable and efficient energy service at competitive rates, is socially equitable through expanded access to energy at affordable tariffs, and environmentally sustainable through reduced pollution. While a great deal has been achieved, the energy crisis is reversing the gains we have made in achieving this noble goal. South Africa continues to grapple with capacity shortages due to aging infrastructure and constant breakdowns of power generation plants. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) reported that 2022 overtook 2021 as the most intensive loadshedding year in history. Eskom recorded a whopping 11 529 GWh of loadshedding, this is equivalent to removing eThekwini Municipality from the national grid for one year. Also, in line with our continued efforts to explore the hydrogen economy in South Africa, we used the summit to launch the eThekwini Regional Hydrogen Strategy.
We are the first city in South Africa to develop a world-class hydrogen strategy. The strategy outlines the exciting potential that lies in building a future hydrogen economy that can deliver a holistic city resilience built on circular economy principles. The Municipality has already identified three hydrogen hubs (namely Durban Port, Richards Bay, and Cato Ridge Dry Port) and each hub serves to meet demand and supply for conventional fuels. Low carbon hydrogen is catalytic for the transformation of eThekwini’s energy landscape by reducing a heavy dependence on domestically produced and imported fossil fuels, in exchange for reliance on domestically sourced renewable energy and a circular economy. I assure residents and businesses that this document won’t gather dust on the shelves of City Hall. It is a practical strategy derived from circular economy approaches to outline supply chain infrastructure projects in the hydrogen economy.
