Notwithstanding the work that government has done to promote economic regulation in South Africa, a lot more still has to be done, Energy Minister Dikobe Ben Martins said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the second South African Economic Regulators Conference, cohosted by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa and the University of Johannesburg, Martins pointed out that government had, to date, established economic regulators in the electricity, gas and petroleum pipelines, ports, aviation, and telecommunications industries, adding that in the transport sector the process of establishing a single transport economic regulator was also ongoing.

The Minister said, in terms of the National Development Plan (NDP), these economic regulators were tasked with safeguarding reliable and competitively priced services, while promoting affordable access for poor households.

Regulators were also supposed to ensure that utilities and operators were efficient and financially viable so that they could invest in maintaining, refurbishing and extending their networks.

“In analysing the effectiveness of economic regulators after more than 15 years, the NDP notes that although regulators have succeeded in issuing licences, developing pricing methods and establishing technical service standards, they have not achieved the positive outcomes initially envisaged,” Martins said, noting that this situation could be attributed to capacity constraints and institutional weaknesses, among other reasons.

Martins further said critical interventions that had to be implemented to improve the performance and effectiveness of economic regulators were set out in the NDP.

These included instituting a far-reaching review of current infrastructure regulators to clarify roles, strengthen accountability and update legislation to explore the possibility of the further consolidation of regulators and the establishment of a monitoring and evaluation unit in the Presidency to undertake periodic regulatory impact reviews, as well as provide advice and support to regulatory authorities.

“It is further noteworthy to recall that President Jacob Zuma reiterated in his State of the Nation Address that government is committed to the implementation of the NDP.

“This conference should be a critical and constructive part of ongoing engagement among stakeholders to find ways to implement the NDP,” he added.

Martins further said, in the energy sector, the Department of Energy would continue to work with economic regulators to identify measures to strengthen their capacity and improve performance.

“Economic regulators should also learn from each other’s best practice. Owing to changing market structures across the economy, economic regulators in South Africa are at different levels of development and expertise, which necessitates the regular exchange of information and expertise among them,” he pointed out.