I want to say to hon Njobe that I respect her, her age and her history in the struggle, but I would like to correct her. She is supposed to show, in this House, and in this debate, whether she supports this. She shouldn't wait for the House, where we take the whole scheme of schedules. [Interjections.]
I want to stay to hon Smalle, there was a song sung by Condry Ziqubu many years ago when we were still young, which says, "uma ukhuluma amanga uyakwaSathane" [If you lie, you will go to hell.] [Laughter.] Today I want to tell him that the people who come here and lie to the nation should realise that they are going to the devil's place, "kwaSathane". [Applause.] [Interjections.] We all know that there has not been any load shedding in South Africa up till now. What we did was to call on our people to use electricity efficiently ... [Interjections.] ... but we also need to realise that the challenge that we are faced with is the fact that some of the plants, including the major supplier, Cahora Bassa in Mozambique, is not operating because of the floods. I indicated that we have challenges because some of our plants have to be shut down for operational purposes. You can't just run a plant without maintaining it. [Interjections.]
The other challenge that you are referring to is not a power generation problem. You know it! It was a challenge relating to a cable. You know it was cable theft, but also a contractor who damaged the cable in the process of working in that particular area. So we shouldn't come here and tell the nation that there has been load shedding. There has not been load shedding. [Applause.] We are saying to the people of South Africa that if we don't use the little that we have efficiently, we will have to go that route. It is up to you and me to make sure that we speak to our constituencies to ensure that they don't abuse the system between 5 and 9.
We are also saying that it is important that people are not bought by using energy efficiently. [Interjections.] We should not tell our people that in order for them to save electricity they must be paid. You are sending out the wrong message, because you are actually talking to people who have lots of money, and who want to see a business opportunity emanate out of the challenges that we have with regard to energy.
I also want to say to hon Moloto that his colleague who comes from the same province as he, had spoken about the issue of bitumen. The Minister of Transport is here and he has listened to what you, and many others, have to say about bitumen. Bitumen is a by-product of crude oil refining and, as we all know, is used in road infrastructure development. Other by-products are ethylene, propylene and other chemicals.
It is therefore important for us to know whether hon Smalle was saying that the function of the chemical sector should also be under my portfolio. Let us learn to think things through. The department was consulted by the Department of Trade and Industry on bitumen and a solution was found. This involved the relaxation of tariffs. I want to say to hon Smalle that it is important that we always tell the truth, and the truth shall set you free. [Interjections.]
The hon Moloto spoke a lot about the issue related to the Petroleum Oil and Gas Corporation of South Africa, PetroSA, and Project Mthombo. Let me say that we are going ahead in making sure that the people of South Africa have a reliable supply. If we have to do it, we will do it through the instrument that is in our hands, and that is PetroSA. It is important that you remember that. [Interjections.] What we do is in the best interests of the people of South Africa, so that we don't have shortages.
You would know that last year we had a serious challenge related to liquefied petroleum gas, LPG. What happened? We had to use PetroSA to make sure that we covered that supply, and PetroSA had to suffer losses because the other refiners see LPG as a waste product which doesn't guarantee returns. If we are going to determine everything on the basis of returns, then it means that South Africa will be in the dark. It is important that we remember that. [Applause.]
Hon Berend should know that when she speaks - and I am sure that their Acting Deputy Chief Whip did indicate that - in a maiden speech, or when she is her master's voice, she should tell us, because she said all sorts of things that are really not true. I would want her to engage with us in a real debate on the issues that she wanted to raise. When I was seated there, I actually realised that ...
My arme suster lees nou 'n toespraak wat deur iemand anders geskryf is. [My poor sister is now reading a speech that was written by someone else.] [Laughter.] [Interjections.] [Applause.]
I want to acknowledge and accept the accolades about women, and to add that we, as the Department of Energy, are working together with the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, and other departments, including Science and Technology, through the efforts of its former Minister, Naledi Pandor, to make it possible that we bring in women, especially in the science, technology, engineering, and maths fields. We have a programme called C3E, which is a clean energy, education and empowerment initiative for women, because we believe that energy will not succeed in this country or even in the world without the participation of women. We believe that women are central. [Applause.] We don't want to come back in 10, 20 or 30 years to talk about transformation then. When the ANC speaks about women you will remember that we are talking about 50-50. The ANC is serious about it. We could have had 50-50 in this House if all parties had made sure that their lists were 50-50, but they did not do that. [Interjections.]
In the clean energy environment, we have an initiative called Empowering Women in Clean Energy, and we want to see that it succeeds because we have inculcated it into the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme. We want those companies that won the bids to make it possible to contribute to making sure that women don't become "o-sihamba nabo" [followers]. Women must own shares, and must be part of the operations and management in every sector of this initiative. They can do it.