The Executive Committee of the Regional Energy Regulators Association of Southern Africa (RERA) has announced the appointment of Francois Robinson as its new Executive Director (ED) effective 1 November 2025.
RERA is the association of energy regulators in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
Skhumbuzo Tsabedze, Chairperson of the RERA Executive Committee, said Robinson brings to the association an extensive and distinguished career in the energy sector, encompassing over 20 years of high-level experience in regulatory frameworks, energy policy development, electricity markets design, and institutional development.
Before his appointment at RERA, Robinson served in various capacities in the economic, technical and legal services at the Electricity Control Board of Namibia (ECB) as well as at the African Forum of Utility Regulators (AFUR). He also served as RERA’s Interim Executive Director for the period 1 September 2024 until 30 June 2025.
“Mr Robinson’s appointment marks a significant milestone in RERA’s commitment to advancing regional energy integration, regulatory harmonisation, and capacity building across the SADC region,” Tsabedze said.
ETANGO caught up with Robinson soon after the announcement of his appointment to get an understanding of RERA’s role and functions.
ET: How and when was RERA created?
FR: The SADC Ministers responsible for Energy approved the establishment of RERA at their meeting held in Maseru, Lesotho on 12 July 2002. An agreement between RERA and the Namibian Government regarding the hosting of the Secretariat of RERA was duly signed on 5 March 2010.
RERA was incorporated as an Association (Not for Gain) under the Companies Act, 1973 of the Laws of Namibia (Act 61 of 1973) on 3 October 2003.
ET: What are the objectives of RERA?
FR: According to the Constitution, the objectives of RERA fall into four broad categories, as follows:
(i) Capacity Building and Information Sharing;
Facilitate energy regulatory capacity-building among members at both a national and regional level through information sharing and skills training.
(ii) Facilitation of Energy Sector Policy, Legislation and Trade;
Enhance the increasing integration of energy systems and energy trade in the region and beyond through the facilitation of harmonised policy, legislation and regulations for cross-border trading, focusing on issues affecting the economic efficiency of energy interconnections and energy trade and on terms and conditions for access to transmission and distribution capacity, safety and cross-border tariffs.
(iii) Consumer Protection and Communication Services;
Enhance consumer awareness and protection through dissemination of information and standardisation of consumer rights, protection and communication in accordance with best practices and national legislation.
(iv) Regional Regulatory Co-operation;
Deliberate and make recommendations to members on issues that fall outside national jurisdiction, and to exercise such powers as may be conferred on RERA through the SADC Energy Protocol.
ET: How is RERA structured?
FR: The governing and operational structure of RERA is as follows:
i) Plenary
The Plenary is composed of all the members of RERA and is the highest decision-making authority of the association.
ii) Executive Committee
The Executive Committee is responsible for the conduct of the affairs of RERA and is composed of the Chief Executives of five Member Regulators.
iii) Portfolio Committees
Four Portfolio Committees have been established with each committee being responsible for one of the RERA objectives.
iv) Secretariat
The Secretariat is responsible for day-to-day activities of RERA and is permanently based in Windhoek, Namibia following a decision of the Executive Committee.
v) Other Organs
Other organs as may be established by the Executive Committee such as the specialist subcommittees, working groups and task teams.
ET: What are the requirements for a regulatory agency to become a RERA member?
FR: RERA membership is open to energy sector regulatory agencies from SADC Member States. New membership is permitted at any time by application to the Executive Committee, with notification thereof being circulated to all existing members. Membership is approved by the Plenary at its meeting following the receipt of the application. Confirmation of membership status is forwarded to the applicant within two months of approval at the Plenary Meeting, and upon payment of the new member’s assessed contribution.
ET: Who are the members of RERA?
FR: National energy or electricity regulatory authorities from all SADC Member States, with the exception of the Union of Comoros, are members.
ET: What are some of the regulatory challenges in the SADC region?
FR: Generally, it is not unusual to note that the under-performance of some of the energy entities including the State-owned utilities. There could be a variety of reasons for this state of affairs. These include but not limited to non-cost reflective prices and tariffs, unsustainable subsidies and limited public sector finance for new infrastructure. The poor performance of the energy entities is often manifested in terms of poor quality and unreliability of supply and services, and low levels of access to services. Private sector participation is fairly limited due a number of reasons including the lack of enabling regulatory frameworks.
A broad outline of the key challenges and/or regulatory issues that RERA has to grapple with in the region include the following;
(a) Inadequate capacity
Relatively new regulatory authorities lack the skills and competencies to deal with highly technical regulatory issues.
Limited resources of RERA and its Secretariat does not enable the Association to recruit adequate staff to deal with the technical work and administrative duties.
(b) Incompatible country regulatory frameworks, instruments and methods
The regions regulatory frameworks are still not yet fully harmonised resulting in limited regional electricity trade.
(c) Insufficient knowledge about RERA and lack of formal recognition among key Stakeholders
No intergovernmental agreements pertaining to the establishment of RERA have been signed by Member States.
(d) Non-sustainability of the electricity/energy industry
Non-full cost recovery tariffs/prices in most Member States result in utilities or regulated entities not being credit worthy and unable to attract the much-needed investment to increase generation/production, transmission and distribution capacity of electricity/energy.
Most Member States struggle with very low electricity access rates, especially in the rural areas.
(e) Lack of a regional energy information system or database that can be used as a resource by regulators, governments, investors and other stakeholders.
(f) Delayed policy reforms and unclear policy direction
The slow pace of reforms and uncertainty in policy direction in the energy sector leads to low investor confidence in the ESI and therefore low levels of Investment.
Lack of clear governance framework for the energy sector results in a lack of clarity of roles.
(g) A growing need to extend regulation to other forms of energy in addition to electricity
The majority of regulators in the sub-region are electricity regulators and hence they have insufficient skills in regulation of other sectors especially gas and petroleum.
ET: Are there any notable achievements made by RERA?
FR: RERA has co-hosted several regulatory training courses with the Institute for Infrastructure Services in Lusaka, Zambia and the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Some officials from government ministries and departments, regulatory agencies and universities have received full sponsorship from RERA to attend some of the training courses.
A number of study visits have also been undertaken within Africa and Europe. These visits have enabled the officials to appreciate regulatory developments and methodologies in other regions of the world and provided an opportunity for RERA members to benchmark themselves against international regulatory practices.
RERA has co-hosted several regional information sharing workshops and these workshops are an integral part of the process of harmonisation of regulatory practices; while a RERA website (www.rerasadc.com) has been developed and is being updated and populated on regular basis.
In the facilitation of Energy Sector Policy, Legislation and Trade,RERA commissioned the development of the Regional Electricity Regulatory Principles (RERP) and the report highlights, among other things, the status of electricity regulation in the SADC region.
Regional Guidelines and Standard Agreements have been developed pertaining to the following:
(a) Implementation Agreement;
(b) Power Purchase/Supply Agreement;
(c) Connection Agreement;
(d) Interconnection Agreement; and
(e) Wheeling Agreement.
Framework and roadmap for the establishment of a Regional Energy Regulatory Authority for SADC was approved by the SADC Ministers responsible for Energy in December 2021.
A formal intra-partnership agreement has been signed between the Electricity Control Board (ECB) of Namibia and the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) of Zambia to address specific issues of mutual interest between the two organisations.
