President Cyril Ramaphosa has issued a gazette indicating a key section in law – which will allow the long-awaited Integrated Energy Plan to be developed – will come into effect. This comes after civil society groups lodged a legal application to compel him to do so. Earlier this year, environmental justice group The Green Connection and the South African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute filed an application calling for the Ramaphosa to bring into operation section 6 of the National Energy Act. This section allows for the development of an Integrated Energy Plan, to be overseen by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe. The IEP is the country’s overarching energy plan, from which others, like the Integrated Resources Plan, should follow. It guides proposed energy projects and deals with the security of supply, the use of economically available energy sources, and the universal accessibility of free basic electricity, among other things.
