By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced he will soon appoint a minister in the presidency who will deal specifically with the country’s electricity crisis.
This comes as part of the government’s intervention plan to resolve the energy crisis — including the declaration of a state of national disaster.
“We are therefore declaring a national state of disaster to respond to the electricity crisis and its effects,” Ramaphosa said, announcing that a Gazette classifying the severe electricity supply constraint a national disaster had been published by the Department of Co-operative Governance prior to his speech.
“To deal more effectively and urgently with the challenges that confront us, I will appoint a Minister of Electricity in The Presidency to assume full responsibility for overseeing all aspects of the electricity crisis response.”
The Minister would focus full-time on ending loadshedding and ensuring that the Energy Action Plan announced in July last year “was implemented without delay”.
“To deal more effectively and urgently with the challenges that confront us, I will appoint a Minister of Electricity in the Presidency to assume full responsibility for overseeing all aspects of the electricity crisis response, including the work of the National Energy Crisis Committee.”
Responding indirectly to criticism that declaring the electricity crisis as a national disaster could facilitate procurement corruption similar to that which was experienced during the Covid lockdowns, Ramaphosa said the Auditor-General would be brought in to ensure “continuous monitoring of expenditure in order to guard against any abuses of funds needed to attend to this disaster”.
Outlining the rationale for the state of disaster, the President said it would enable government to implement practical measures needed to support businesses in the food production, storage and retail supply chain, including for the roll-out of generators, solar panels and uninterrupted power supply.
“Where technically possible, it will enable us to exempt critical infrastructure such as hospitals and water treatment plants from load shedding.
“And it will enable us to accelerate energy projects and limit regulatory requirements while maintaining rigorous enviromental protections, procurement principles and technical standards.”
Ramaphosa also mentioned in his address that “government will support Eskom to secure additional funding, to continue purchasing diesel for the rest of the financial year”.
“This should reduce the severity of load shedding as Eskom will be able to use its diesel-run plants when the system is under strain,” the president said.
In December, Eskom declared that it had run out of money to buy more diesel, having spent R12 billion, overshooting its annual budget by more than 100%.
In response, Eskom said it would study the detail in the Government Gazette to understand the implications of the declaration before it would provide any further comment. It also did not comment on the plan to appoint a Minister of Electricity.