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The Portfolio Committee on Energy has described the production and trading of electricity appliances by some manufactures without the SA Bureau of Standards (SABS) certification as a serious threat to the economy and consumers’ lives.
 
This follows shocking revelations by SABS that there are tons of locally and internationally manufactured products which do not conform to the prescribed quality national standards, thus making it difficult assess their energy efficiency.
 
The Committee Chairperson, Mr Sisa Njikelana, said they had observed increasing numbers of households with solar water heaters across the country, and that the Committee was under impression that all was done according to approved safety measures.
 
The Committee discovered this during its first day of oversight visit to state-owned entities in Gauteng. SABS CEO, Dr Boni Mehlomakulu, told the Committee that some state institutions, including certain municipalities, continued to procure and utilise some products that were untested for standards compliance.
 
Besides the lack of compulsory and foreign policy testing, Mr Njikelana said they would work hand-in-hand with other parliamentary committees and relevant entities to look into energy efficiency when they monitor the work and performance of public and private institutions.
 
Meanwhile, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) briefed the Committee on their discovery of the new prototype housing design with less energy demands but at the same cost of the current building structures.
 
The Council’s Principal Researcher, Mr Llewellyn van Wyk, said they had recommended their new model to Human Settlements Department for the government housing programme.