The Eastern Cape Provincial Energy Summit was held at the Boardwalk Tsitsikamma Conference Centre in Port Elizabeth on 28-30 September 2008.

The commisions feedback team

The Premier of the Eastern Cape, Hon Mbulelo Sogoni gave a welcoming speech in which he reminded everyone of the province's target of halving poverty and unemployment by 2014, as well as its target of reaching the goal of universal access to electricity by 2012. He highlighted that, among all the provinces, the Eastern Cape ranks second in terms of the number of households without electricity, second in terms of schools without electricity and first in terms of clinics without electricity.  

After several other interesting presentations, four break-away commissions were convened in order to deliberate on the way forward with regard to:

1) Economic Growth, Development & Energy (chaired by Dr Enyinna Nkem-Abonta, DEDEA)

2) Alternative Energy: Options for the Eastern Cape (chaired by Eugene Visagie, University of Cape Town)

3) Energy Efficiency (chaired by Renee de Kock, Eskom)

4) Coordination on Energy in the Province (chaired by Chris Motsilili, Office of the Premier)

The various chairs subsequently gave report-back presentations outlining the recommendations proposed by the commissions.  

Going Green congratulates the DEDEA for taking the lead in convening a successful summit. We trust that the recommendations emerging from the summit will be implemented with a great sense of enthusiasm and urgency. It is indeed an honour to be included in these discussions - in the words of Dr Nkem-Abonta, we agree that we are indeed " sitting on the brink of history".