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- Minister Gwede Mantashe said as a result of the unrest precautionary closures, fuel supply was constrained, but no shortages were experienced.
- Mantashe said further assessment of the criminality, vandalism and looting was still being conducted by the department.
- Director-general Tseliso Maqubela the country was dependent on imported fuels which go towards the country's refineries.
While July's unrest did not hurt mining as much as it did other sectors, the hampered supply of petroleum slowed a number of operations down, according to Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe.
While South Africa continues to take stock of the damage caused by July's unrest, President Cyril Ramaphosa has sought to line up interventions to assist South Africans and business rocked by voice in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, which wiped an estimated R50 billion from South Africa GDP.
The unrest had its beginnings in outrage as a result of former president Jacob Zuma's arrest over his refusal to appear before the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture as well as his alleged disregard for the Constitutional Court.
The looting which swept through Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal saw stores, malls and warehouses looted of their goods and destroyed before the South African Police Service and South African National Defence Force intervened.
Mantashe told the Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources and Energy on Tuesday morning that, as a result of the unrest and subsequent precautionary closures, fuel supply was constrained but no shortages were experienced in key sectors.
"In the mining sector there was no destruction, although the impact on supplies slowed work down at some operations. There were threats to interrupt supply, but there was no real interruption, " said Mantashe.Mantashe said an assessment of the impact of criminality, vandalism and looting was still being conducted by the department to understand its effect on jobs, investment, the economy and people's livelihood.
"Safety and security in the country are very important. And we must not counter-suppose that with poverty, because those poor people are the first to be affected when that safety is compromised," said Mantashe.
Director-general for minerals and petroleum regulation Tseliso Maqubela said the country was always dependent on imported fuels in the form of crude oil which goes towards the country's refineries.
"Riots impacted on movement of workers to and from Sapref [Shell and BP's South African Petroleum Refineries] which constitute 35% of the South African refinery capacity.
"Shutdown by Sapref meant that the country lost 24 000 tons of processing of crude per day which will ultimately impact on the 2.7 million litres of petrol produced by Sapref per year," said Maqubela.
Maqubela said the supply and logistic disruption of highways to and from posts on Durban posed a threat to mining industry, as it became difficult to transport explosive materials used in the mines.
"Our country is dependent on imported fuel that goes to the refineries. When the riots broke out there was an impact on the movement of workers to the biggest refinery in the country which is Shell and BP. That meant that that refinery had to shut down," Maqubela said.
Maqubela said crude oil supply affected the production of petroleum and as a result fuel could not be moved from Durban to the inland provinces.
"Many were concerned about the availability of diesel to continue mining. But there was no major impact because of interventions that the department undertook to ensure that the impact is minimised," said Maqubela.He said while the estimated damage to the whole economy was R50 billion impact, mineral sales were also impacted, the extent of which would likely be seen in the July GDP statistics to be released by Statistics South Africa.
"Because of the impact on port activity, some of the imports would not have been undertaken timeously and some of the exports could not have taken place. The jobs lost in this sector were lost temporarily and they can be recovered. When those fuel stations are rebuilt, those jobs will be recovered," he said.
He said the refurbishment costs for companies affected by the damage from looting are still being calculated. He said the unrest in the two provinces also went on to have a regional impact on South Africa's neighbours.
"Fuel could not be transmitted or transported to Eswatini or Mozambique because of the road closures. If we have a repeat, those countries will start to look for alternatives instead of relying on South Africa for fuel," he said.
Maqubela added that there was a partial closure of key storage facilities, including Culter in Germiston, Island View in Mossel Bay, Vopak in Durban and the LPG storage facility in Richards Bay. Inland storage facilities were placed under additional security measures, he said.
Maqubela said the department would continue to assess the impact of the unrest with industry and experts to find out what it could learn in terms of long-term energy and supply security. He said infrastructure and petroleum were often targeted by criminal syndicates and this needed to be addressed urgently.
