South Africa is back under a national state of disaster, this time for loadshedding. President Cyril Ramaphosa made the announcement during his seventh State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday.
The state of disaster was announced alongside a range of interventions aimed at tackling the debilitating power cuts, which the president described as an “existential threat” to the economy and social fabric.
Ramaphosa acknowledged the disastrous effect of loadshedding: “Loadshedding means that households and supermarkets are unable to keep food fresh, water supply is often disrupted, traffic lights do not work, streets are not lit at night. Without a reliable supply of electricity our efforts to grow an inclusive economy that creates jobs and reduces poverty will not succeed”.
Speaking to the media outside Parliament in Cape Town shortly after SONA, members of his Cabinet were confident in the decision. However, opposition parties were not so thrilled.
“We have a plan that was announced last year, there’s a national energy crisis committee working on that plan. I’m pleased that that plan will be implemented no matter how difficult it is,” said Brett Herron from GOOD Party. “The announcement of a state of disaster was unnecessary; it’s really about creating the optics of urgency when there is existing legislation that can assist Eskom and the State to fast-track the end to our electricity crisis,” he continued.
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State of Disaster
The state of disaster had already been gazetted by Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma when Ramaphosa made the announcement.
“The state of disaster will enable us to provide practical measures that we need to take to
support businesses in the food production, storage and retail supply chain, including for the
rollout of generators, solar panels and uninterrupted power supply,” Ramaphosa said.
He added: “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 environmental protections, procurement principles and technical standards”.
The statesman also sought to allay fears of a state of disaster paving the way for rampant corruption, as had been the case when COVID-19 was declared a disaster.
“The Auditor-General will be brought in to ensure continuous monitoring of expenditure, in
order to guard against any abuses of the funds needed to attend to this disaster,” said Ramaphosa.
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‘Farcical and non-sensible’
Herron wasn’t the only one to deem the state of disaster as unnecessary. The Democratic Alliance blasted the move, condemning it as a “farcical” one that made “absolutely no sense”.
“Part of the obstacles to us being energy secure is that you’ve got too many politicians meddling there; getting in the way of energy experts and industry experts. Now, you’ve just added another minister,” said federal leader John Steenhuisen.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe will be joined by a new minister in the Presidency whose task would be to oversee the government’s response to the energy crisis.
“You’re just layering bureaucracy over bureaucracy. The president should have said ‘I’m getting the politicians out of the way, I’m appointing a local energy expert and we’re going to free their hands to get power back into our homes and back into our economy.”
FF Plus leader Pieter Groenewald was also having a hard time believing a Minister of Electricity would help solve the crisis. He said: “I don’t see that there’s going to be any difference. It’s another minister, it’s more taxpayers’ money and we say it’s unnecessary”.
The president also reported back on progress – and the lack thereof – in other affairs of running the country. He addressed some of the most pressing challenges, including crime, corruption, economic growth and infrastructure investments.
