Utilities of South Africa

utilities2

Power

Electricity supply in South Africa derives largely from coal deposits in the north-east. Eskom is the public electricity board and largest producer in the country – 70 per cent of people have access to electricity. In the late 1990s, the government attempted unsuccessfully to privatise Eskom and this pro-privatisation argument has returned in recent years. Costs to consumers have risen in the face of Eskom’s tariff increases alongside necessitated blackouts so that some have called for an end to Eskom’s market dominance. Koeberg (Eskom) remains South Africa’s only nuclear plant.

South Africa’s oil reserve capacity totals 15 million barrels (2008) and it has the second biggest refining capacity in Africa. The national oil company is PetroSA (Petroleum, Oil and Gas Corporation of South Africa), which operates offshore extraction of gas, production of synthetic fuels and oil extractions. Its biggest facility is the gas-to-liquid facility in Mossel Bay.

 

Waste

A traditional municipal state sector, 90 per cent of households in metro areas of South Africa have access to weekly refuse removal. However, rural areas remain underserviced, with only 20 per cent having weekly refuse removal. Waste collection is one area in which private sector investment has been suggested.

 

Water

Water and sanitation is deemed a constitutional right in South Africa, and this places onus on the government to ensure service delivery. Since the 1990s, some South African municipalities have begun collaborating with overseas organisations via concessions or management contracts to ensure that service delivery is met, including the area of wastewater treatment. Early PPPs were launched in Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. In 1999, the Borough of Dolphin Coast in the KwaZulu-Natal province agreed a 30-year concession contract with Siza Water Company (Siza), part of the French multinational SAUR Services. A public–private partnership was adopted in response to expected growth in the area and its poor existing water infrastructure to accommodate this. According to the UN’s 2006 Human Development Report, South Africa has reduced the backlog in water provision to its citizens to 17 per cent. Low-income households are provided with a free basic six kilolitres of water a month. South Africa’s agriculture, mining and manufacturing industries rely heavily on water supplies. It is estimated therefore that a 17 per cent gap between water demand and supply will emerge by 2030. A public–private partnership between Sasol, the Emfuleni local municipality and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, a German development agency, has been

designated to improve municipal infrastructure in order to reduce leakage and urban water demand, as well as shared water risks. Longer running prominent projects include the Nelspruit water concessions and Durban Water Recycling.

 

Telecoms

South Africa, the country that invented touchtone dialling, has the most established telecoms network in Africa and the now liberalised telecoms sector is one of the fastest growing of the economy. The country has 96 main telephone lines, 871 mobile cellular subscribers and 82 internet users per 1,000 people (2007). Telkom SA is now semi-privatised and 39 per cent state owned. Telkom once had a fixed-line monopoly, but Neotel now holds a share of the market. South Africa has the fourth largest mobile communications market in the world, with MTN, Vodacom and Cell C providing mobile phone subscriptions to over 80 per cent of the population. The next major infrastructure initiative is the expansion of broadband accessibility. State, private and public–private initiatives are being put in place to ensure that this process occurs swiftly. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa is the telecoms regulator.