Herman Mashaba’s party will today gather in Gauteng to discuss for the first time since formation, the policy direction the party will take.
Among other key discussions will be the energy security crisis triggered by raging and devastating blackouts.
The party has proposed that the more than 600 delegates to attend the policy conference must seriously consider adopting a policy that calls for the breaking up of
Eskom’s monopoly.
According to the energy security policy document to be tabled at the gathering, the energy provision space ought to be opened more to independent power producers (IPPs).
Furthermore, private citizens who want to generate their own energy must be encouraged to do so and be compensated for taking weight off Eskom.
“The state must allow independent power producers to build new energy generation plants without any limitations on generation capacity [and] allow IPPs to sell directly to consumers.”
“Furthermore, the state must allow households and businesses to generate electricity to meet their own needs, giving the national grid space to meet the needs of those that cannot generate their own energy.”
The party believes that the country must consider focusing more on ways to take the demand off the national grid, but and accept that demand for energy will not go down but will shot up.
The party will also discuss the contentious issue of the just transition away from coal, which it believes that although urgent, it should not be pushed at all costs to compromise the interests of the country.
Among other policy issues to be discussed is the deportation of illegal immigrants, introduction of hard labour for hardened criminals serving life sentences and introduction of basic income stimulus policy for the unemployed.
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