The appointment of a minister of electricity with a specific mandate to deal with load-shedding is the best way to tackle the crisis, President Cyril Ramaphosa insisted on Thursday.
He was replying in parliament to the debate on the state of the nation address he delivered last week. Opposition parties were scathing of the announcement of a minister of electricity and a state of disaster, saying it would lead to confusion, fragmentation and turf wars involving the other ministers with oversight over Eskom: mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe and public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan.
“To end load-shedding we must shift gear. A crisis of this nature demands a co-ordinated response and it demands urgent action. That is the reason I am appointing a special minister in the presidency and the reason a national state of disaster has been declared. This new minister will assume full responsibility for overseeing all aspects of the electricity crisis response,” Ramaphosa said.
“The minister will be responsible for driving the various actions being co-ordinated by the national energy crisis committee to end load-shedding as a matter of urgency. The reality is that the resolution of the energy crisis requires effective co-ordination across several departments and public entities. It requires the undivided attention of a political principal who does not need to split their energies among different important responsibilities.
“This appointment will ensure that there is a minister who is ultimately responsible for resolving load-shedding and who is able to work with all fellow cabinet ministers, departments and entities to do so,” Ramaphosa said.
Urgency of execution and delivery is paramount. “We don’t have the luxury of time,” the president said.
The minister of electricity will be focused “day in and day out” only on addressing the load-shedding crisis, working together with the management of Eskom and the board.
Mantashe’s responsibility is for energy policy as well as mineral resources, while Gordhan will deal with the restructuring of Eskom and other state-owned enterprises.
State of disaster
Ramaphosa said the state of disaster declared last week would be used to mitigate the social and economic effects of load-shedding and accelerate the measures necessary to close the shortfall in electricity, “and nothing else”.
“As I said in the state of the nation address, we will ensure that environmental protections and technical standards are maintained, and that procurement is undertaken with transparency and proper oversight.
“We will use the state of disaster to get rid of unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles that stand in the way of urgently bringing new generation capacity onto the grid. We will use it to ensure continuity in the provision of critical services and supply chains, and to address the impact of load-shedding on businesses and households.”
Ramaphosa criticised the views expressed by opposition parties during their reply to his state of the nation address, saying they were “merchants of despair” rather than of hope.
“They have determined that their political fortunes are best served by depicting a country in chaos,” he said.
“Rather than acknowledge the grave damage caused to our country by state capture, by the effects of a devastating global pandemic or by the worst public violence in the history of our democracy, some of these honourable members have failed to come up with practical suggestions or solutions,” he said.
“Some choose to belittle and deride what has been achieved over the last five years in the midst of extremely difficult conditions because it does not serve their political interests.”
This progress included reinvigorating entities such as the SA Revenue Service, the National Prosecuting Authority and the Special Investigating Unit, and the establishment of the Investigating Directorate. It included the provision of a new grant to millions of people, the expansion of the public employment programme, implementing economic reforms and allowing the private sector to get involved in energy generation and mobilising investments.
But Ramaphosa also acknowledged the country’s challenges, saying “South Africans are worn down by power outages, water supply interruptions, rising crime and instability in local government.”
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