By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The new state of disaster to tackle ongoing load shedding and the ongoing energy crisis in South Africa already faces legal challenges.
Following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address on Thursday evening (9 February) in which he announced the declaration, opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, said it had already consulted its legal team to challenge the policy in court.
The DA previously pushed for and supported the declaration of a state of disaster over the energy crisis, but wanted it to be “ring-fenced”. The party argues that the disaster declared by Ramaphosa is too broad and open to abuse.
“In the absence of any real solutions to the permanent load shedding crisis created by the ANC, Ramaphosa, during his SONA address, desperately grasped at the straw of a sweeping National State of Disaster,” said DA leader John Steenhuisen.
“The DA can confirm that we have already briefed our lawyers to challenge the announcement in court.”
In a separate announcement, trade union Solidarity said it would also be launching legal action against the declaration, echoing many of the same sentiments.
“Poor central control landed us in this crisis. Such poor control in even more measures will not get us out of the crisis,” said Solidarity chief executive, Dirk Hermann.
“Everything the president announced in the State of the Nation Address can already be implemented by using existing legislation. The harsh reality is that all the instruments to solve the crisis are already at the president’s disposal – he simply chooses not to use them. Therefore, a state of disaster is irrational and unnecessary and leaves Solidarity with no option but to litigate.”
Both the DA and Solidarity are of the view that the national state of disaster will simply be used by the government to abuse state resources, and that the country is likely to face a barrage of looting as was seen during the Covid crisis, where politically connected businesses and politically exposed persons robbed the state of billions of rands in relief funds.
“We dare not allow a repeat of the government’s abuse of power that occurred during the Covid-19 state of disaster. The decision-making that led to a ban on warm chicken meals and flip-flops now wants to take decisions about the energy crisis without proper oversight.
“A state of disaster will not end the energy crisis any faster, but it opens the door to major abuse once again,” Hermann said. “This is quite simply a lose-lose situation.”
Meanwhile National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) General Secretary Irvin Jim says they do not understand the envisaged appointment of the Minister of Electricity as announced by Ramaphosa during the state of the nation address.
Jim has reiterated Numsa’s opposition to the declaration of a national state of disaster due to the rolling power cuts. This emerged during NUMSA’s Free State and Northern Cape special congress which sat to elect a new Regional Chairperson after Grace Mosokotsoane was elected as the Second Deputy Secretary.
Jim added that they will challenge government in court next month on the issue of the national state of disaster.