Minister Ramokgopa Is Flying Blind and Ignoring the Law

Statement by Kevin Mileham MP – DA Spokesperson on Energy and Electricity:

The Minister of Electricity and Energy, Dr. Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, is presiding over a critical statutory failure that leaves South Africa’s energy future suspended in limbo. By failing to implement the mandatory Integrated Energy Plan (IEP), the Minister is not only ignoring the National Energy Act but is making multi-billion rand procurement decisions with no apparent legal or evidentiary basis.

The Department’s Q3 2025/26 Performance Review presentation to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Electricity and Energy on Wednesday confirms that the IEP – the master blueprint for energy carriers, costs, and infrastructure – remains “Not Achieved”.

While the Minister attempts to frame this as a technical delay, the reality is a dual-layered breach of the National Energy Act, which became fully operational on 1 April 2024.

The basis of this failure is as follows:

• Under Section 3 of the Act, the Minister is legally required to establish a mechanism for energy data collection to inform planning. Wednesday’s reports admit the Department is still only “scoping” this design, nearly two years after the law came into effect.
• Section 6(3) explicitly states the IEP must be based on the data analysis from Section 3. By failing to build the data platform, the Minister has made it legally impossible to produce a compliant IEP.
• The Department’s excuse for this failure is a “delay in technical agreements” while waiting for Spanish government funding. It is unacceptable that the statutory planning of South Africa’s energy security is treated as a charity project dependent on foreign handouts.

Without a finalised IEP, there is no “rational” basis for the current push into nuclear expansion or gas-to-power. The Minister is inviting a wave of litigation that will further delay the energy transition, because of a failure to prioritise the basic administrative duties of his office.

The Democratic Alliance demands the immediate operationalisation of section 3: the Minister must provide a hard deadline for the completion of the National Energy Data Platform; planning cannot happen in a vacuum.

In addition, we require the immediate presentation of a clear, legally binding timeline for the tabling of the IEP to the portfolio committee, independent of foreign funding cycles. We call on the Minister to explain how any section 34 procurement determination can be considered legally “rational” while the primary planning instrument required by law does not exist.

South Africa cannot afford a Minister who treats the National Energy Act as a set of optional guidelines. We need data, we need a plan, and we need a Minister who follows the law.