President Thabo Mbeki used his penultimate state of the nation address to Parliament on Friday to allay fears over the electricity supply crisis, and urged South Africans to unite as never before to address common challenges. Identifying "business unusual" as the imperative, he announced further poverty alleviation measures and recommitted government to fighting crime.

The energy emergency could be overcome in a "relatively short period" and should be used for the country to become more energy efficient, he said. "Let us therefore use this emergency to put in place the first building blocks of the essential energy efficient future we dare not avoid."

He apologised to South Africans for the national emergency and thanked them for their "resilience and forbearing". Eskom, he said, was "working furiously" to ensure the introduction of co-generation projects as a matter of urgency. "We have emergency task teams dealing with... coal quality and supply with the coal mining industry and we are working to fast track the approval and construction of gas turbine projects."

The situation had precipitated the realisation that the era of cheap electricity was at an end. Despite this, and given the country's large base of installed generation capacity, South Africa would remain one of the few economies with affordable electricity for a long time.

The crisis had led "some elsewhere in the world" to question whether the country would be able to host the Fifa confederations cup in 2009, and the world cup in 2010. "I have absolutely no doubt that we will honour our undertaking to Fifa and the world community... to create all the necessary conditions for the hosting of the best ever Fifa soccer world cup tournament."

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel's budget speech would outline the government's support for its energy efficiency campaign and Eskom's build programme, he said.

Mbeki said government intended this year to intensify the campaign to identify specific households and individuals in dire need and to put in place interventions that would help, in the intervening period, to alleviate their plight.

This would require a "National War Room for a War Against Poverty" bringing together government departments, provincial and local administrations. They would work with NGOs and business to identify the interventions required in specific households and implement them as a matter of urgency.

Specific priorities critical to the war against poverty would be attended to this year. These included speeding up land and agrarian reform with detailed plans for land acquisition, better implementation of agricultural
support services and household food support, and improving the capital base and reach of MAFISA agricultural financial scheme to provide micro-credit in this sector.

The focus would be on areas of large concentrations of farm dwellers and those with high eviction rates, and it was intended to increase black entrepreneurship in agricultural production by five percent a year. The audit on land ownership would also be speeded up, Mbeki said.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel's budget on February 20 would provide for an increase in the social grant system by equalising the age of eligibility at 60, thus benefiting about half a million men.

Among other things, efforts already started to scale up assistance to co-operatives and small enterprises, especially those involving women, would be intensified. The National Youth Service programme would be scaled up, and the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) intensified, Mbeki said.