Abstract
The South African economy went through drastic changes since the new democratic
government took power in 1994. Different programmes were changed through the
process of transition from the old apartheid regime to a new democratic government. The
first programme introduced was the RDP, followed by GEAR and then ASGISA, but all
these programmes were not enough to circumvent all the challenges experienced by the
South African economy. This is the context within which the debate around privatization
occurred in the ANC. All the programmes that were changed favoured privatization in
one way or other. Through these changes privatization was one of the policies envisaged
to be a possible means to address past inequalities.
This thesis focuses on the impact of privatization on the electricity industry in South
Africa with specific reference to Gauteng. The paper is based on the fact that Gauteng is
believed to be the centre of business in South Africa. However because, competition in
the South African electricity industry did not exist, this resulted in poor service delivery.
The electricity industry in South Africa is divided into three sectors namely generation,
transmission and distribution. Eskom controls almost the entire electricity industry from
generation to distribution with a few private players here and there. The only private
player in the generation sector is the Kelvin power plant, which holds almost 30 percent
of the generation sector. Privatization in the South African electricity industry still has a
far way to go before a desirable level of competition is achieved.
In order to recommend how increased competition can be injected, the privatization of
electricity in developed, developing and transitional countries such as UK, Greece, Chile,
Hungary and Argentina was explored. The thesis recommends how the government can
further expand privatization by learning from these countries.
Mr. Arnold Wentzel