Gas Bill clears 36 submissions as 90% of stakeholders back it
The portfolio committee on electricity and energy has heard the department's response to every written submission on the Gas Bill, and the next step is line by line deliberation.
About 90% of the 36 written submissions on the Gas Bill support it passing into law, the portfolio committee on electricity and energy heard on 26 August, as the department of electricity and energy presented its response to every comment received.
The Bill was tabled in Parliament in March this year. It repeals and replaces the Gas Act of 2001, which the department told the committee is no longer fit for purpose. The 2001 Act covers gas pipeline transportation but contains no provisions for offences and penalties, lacks environmental protection and rehabilitation measures, and restricts the oversight and enforcement powers of the regulator.
The committee received 36 written submissions. Industry associations made up about 31% of them, environmental advocacy groups about 25%, business organisations 19% and labour unions 11%. The regulator, a constitutional body and the Industrial Development Corporation accounted for about 3% each. Roughly 90% of stakeholders supported the Bill, and about 10% did not.
What the submissions raised
The department grouped the inputs into themes: alignment of the regulatory framework with environmental and climate change law, provisions on exclusivity for distribution infrastructure, the regulator’s powers to set pricing and tariffs where there is no competition, new inspection provisions, judicial review of the regulator’s decisions, the procedure for ministerial determinations and the gas master plan, public consultation on licensing and registration, ministerial powers and exemptions, and the proportionality of administrative fines.
The department has finalised its position on every substantive issue raised.
On the preamble, a stakeholder asked that it record the climate change crisis, the state’s obligations under the Climate Change Act and the Paris Agreement, and the just transition to a low carbon economy. The department did not support this. It told the committee that the preamble is a short articulation of the Bill’s objective, and that the state’s specific obligations sit in their own legislation. The Bill will be implemented in a manner that complies with other applicable law across the gas value chain.
On the definition of gas, stakeholders warned that including liquefied petroleum gas would create overlapping regulators, because the LPG sector is already regulated under the Petroleum Products Act and related legislation. The department agreed and will remove the reference to regasified gas from the definition.
On transformation, the department accepted a proposal to widen the object of the Bill. The clause promoting companies owned or controlled by black people will be replaced with wording promoting meaningful participation of black people and black owned enterprises throughout the gas value chain, including historically disadvantaged South Africans in ownership, management, financing, operation and procurement, in line with the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act of 2003 and any sector specific codes. A second proposal, to replace racial ownership as the statutory destination with a broader formulation covering income, education, geography, disability, unemployment, enterprise size and access to capital, was not supported. The department’s view is that B-BBEE legislation remains the primary instrument for redress, and that measures under the gas master plan will carry the work further.
The department also accepted recommendations to add objects promoting localisation, industrialisation and community development, and local manufacturing, beneficiation and downstream value addition. It did not support writing decent work into the Bill, telling the committee that labour matters fall under the department of labour and that the energy regulator would struggle to enforce them without duplicating another department’s role. It also declined to write the concept of a just energy transition into the Bill.
A proposal to define third party access, so that access to available capacity at a gas facility is granted on transparent, objective and non discriminatory terms, was accepted and a new definition will be inserted. A related proposal to prescribe detailed refusal grounds, use it or lose it rules and binding timelines in the Bill itself was not supported. The department’s position is that those matters are handled through regulations the regulator already uses, which will be amended to align with the Bill.
On hydrogen, the department said the definition of gas is intended to allow infrastructure to be repurposed for transport and storage of compatible energy sources such as green hydrogen, with the wider value chain supported through regulations and ministerial determinations.
What happens next
The committee chairperson told the meeting that the department’s response is not cut in stone, and that adjustments and amendments may follow during deliberations. The committee will now work through the Bill clause by clause, with the office of the chief state law advisor and parliamentary legal services present for the process.
The chairperson also said the committee has asked the department for a comprehensive presentation on Eskom’s transmission and grid assets, with the intention of scheduling it in the first weeks of the coming term. Members raised the debate over the transfer of Eskom’s grid assets to the transmission system operator, and a separate request on Eskom’s diesel stockpile and allegations of maladministration in payments for it. Those matters were parked for a future meeting so that the Gas Bill could be dealt with on the day.
Source: Parliament of South Africa (YouTube), Portfolio Committee on Electricity and Energy, 26 August 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r574ac_iBus
