South Africa has for long held the title for Africa’s most industrialized economy, but much of that has been powered by fossil fuels. Making the country a net importer of crude oil. It is against that backdrop that the country passed a policy to promote the use of ethanol and biodiesel.
However, there has not been much to write home about on efforts towards that front. That can be mainly attributed to the lack of government regulations and policies, which led to stakeholders not warming up to the available investment opportunities.
On Monday, a biofuels regulatory framework was tablets, drawing the roadmap on how the country will achieve its biofuel production goals. The country hopes to finalize the biofuels regulatory framework by March 2019.
“The department will be tabling this biofuel framework to cabinet for its consideration and approval before end of March 2019,” said Jeff Radebe during a conference on energy held in Cape Town.
The framework stipulations include a mandatory purchase of biofuels by the licensed manufacturers and feedstock plans that will not jeopardize food security in South Africa.