Energy Security: Targeted Support and Restructuring in 2026

Renosi Mokate and Kenneth Creamer, members of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), assert that fuel levy cuts offer only transient relief. They argue the government must prioritize targeted support and accelerated restructuring to secure energy stability amidst a deepening global economic crisis.

Short-term fiscal patches like levy reductions are political wins, but they are not economic strategies. For the C-suite, these fluctuations create a volatile overhead environment that complicates long-term CAPEX planning. When the state relies on temporary relief instead of structural overhauls, the private sector is forced to hedge against systemic instability. This gap in stability is where strategic fiscal advisory services become indispensable for firms attempting to maintain margins in a fluctuating energy market.

The Architecture of the 7th Administration’s Economic Guard

The appointment of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council on November 15, 2024, signaled a shift toward a more technical, multidisciplinary approach to governance. Chaired by President Cyril Ramaphosa, the Council is designed as a non-statutory, independent body. It is not a rubber stamp; it is a forum for “in-depth and structured discussions” intended to build a capable state—one of the top three priorities for the 7th Administration.

Dr. Renosi Mokate, serving as Deputy Chairperson and a former executive and dean, brings a level of academic and administrative rigor to the Council. Alongside her, Dr. Kenneth Creamer, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Economics and Finance at Wits University, provides the macroeconomic grounding necessary to navigate South Africa’s current headwinds. Their roles are not merely advisory; they are tasked with ensuring “greater coherence and consistency” in how economic policy is implemented across government silos.

The Council’s expertise is intentionally broad, covering international economics, fiscal and monetary policy, and the economics of poverty, and inequality. However, the current crisis has narrowed the focus to the most critical bottleneck: energy.

The Energy Security Imperative

Energy security is the linchpin of industrial growth. Without a stable grid, EBITDA margins for manufacturing and mining are eroded by the inefficiency of backup power and the unpredictability of load shedding. Mokate and Creamer’s insistence on “accelerated restructuring” points to a fundamental truth: you cannot legislate growth into a system that lacks the power to run its machinery.

The Council has already flagged critical failure points in previous workstreams. Per PEAC publications, the focus has shifted from simple “market-fixing” to a more aggressive “market-shaping” strategy. This involves not just managing the decline of legacy systems but actively building the infrastructure for a just green energy transition.

The fiscal burden of Eskom’s debt crisis remains a shadow over the national budget. Although fuel levy cuts provide a temporary reprieve for the consumer, they do nothing to resolve the underlying insolvency of the energy provider. Companies facing these systemic risks are increasingly turning to energy infrastructure consultants to decouple their operations from the national grid through private generation and storage solutions.

Three Pillars of the New Energy Paradigm

The transition from short-term relief to long-term security requires a pivot in how the state interacts with the energy market. Based on the PEAC’s strategic trajectory, the industry is shifting in three distinct directions:

• From Market-Fixing to Market-Shaping: Instead of reacting to crises with temporary subsidies, the state is moving toward creating a regulatory environment that incentivizes private investment in transmission infrastructure.
• The Debt-to-Equity Pivot: Solving the Eskom debt crisis is no longer just a treasury issue; it is a national security priority. The goal is to move from a state of perpetual bailout to a sustainable financial model.
• Decentralized Sub-National Planning: The Council has identified the need to undo “silos in sub-national planning.” By coordinating energy needs at a district level, the government can better align infrastructure rollout with industrial demand.

This shift necessitates a new breed of corporate agility. Firms that can pivot their energy sourcing while navigating the legal complexities of a changing regulatory landscape will outperform their peers. This is why mid-cap industrial players are now engaging enterprise restructuring firms to realign their operational models with a decentralized energy future.

“The government’s response must include targeted support and accelerated restructuring for energy security.”

The Fiscal Problem of ‘Short-Termism’

The danger of the fuel levy cut is the illusion of stability. When the government provides relief through the tax code rather than through infrastructure investment, it creates a fiscal cliff. The revenue lost from these cuts must be offset elsewhere, often leading to tighter fiscal policy in other critical areas of growth.

Mokate and Creamer are pushing for “targeted support”—a surgical approach to economic aid rather than the blunt instrument of across-the-board levy cuts. Targeted support allows the state to protect the most vulnerable sectors and the most productive industries without bankrupting the treasury.

The expertise within the PEAC—spanning microeconomics, network industries, and regulation—is designed to execute this precision. By focusing on the economics of education and urban development alongside energy, the Council is attempting to solve the “job creation” puzzle by first solving the “power” puzzle.

The trajectory is clear: the era of the state as the sole energy provider is ending. The 7th Administration’s success depends on how quickly it can transition from a provider to a regulator of a diverse, competitive energy market. For the business community, the signal is to stop waiting for the grid to stabilize and start investing in the restructuring of their own energy footprints. Those who wait for the “short-term relief” to become permanent will find themselves lagging behind the competitors who treated energy security as a strategic imperative rather than a government problem.

Finding the right partners to navigate this transition is the final piece of the puzzle. Whether it is restructuring debt or redesigning power grids, the World Today News Directory provides the vetted B2B connections necessary to turn these macro-economic challenges into competitive advantages.