Cape Town – President Cyril Ramaphosa has hinted at plans of possibly declaring the country’s energy crisis a national state of disaster, saying there was broad agreement to proceed in that direction.
In closing the ANC NEC lekgotla on Sunday, Ramaphosa said there was “clear direction” from the gathering that they must resolve the immediate task of load shedding within a shorter time-frame than what has been projected. Eskom has said it could take about two years to end load shedding.
“There was talk about a national state of disaster, like what we did when we faced Covid-19. Work is already under way within the government to establish whether the legal requirements for the declaration of a national state of disaster are met and what specific actions we would be empowered to undertake to urgently resolve load shedding within the framework of a national state of disaster. This matter will receive attention, including at the Cabinet Lekgotla, and must be resolved without delay,” said Ramaphosa.
The proposal was apparently articulated in consultations they held with various parties, he said.
“This lekgotla has agreed that the co-ordination of our response also needs to be escalated to the most senior levels of government and that we need to communicate more clearly and the message should be a singular message so that there is no confusion among our people. The lekgotla said the president must co-ordinate all these processes to ensure the electricity crisis is addressed like we did with Covid-19,” he said.
The DA said talk of declaring the country’s power crisis a national state of disaster was to accede to their long-time demand to declare Eskom an ANC-made disaster zone.
The party’s spokesperson on mineral resources and energy, Kevin Mileham, said the reality that the ANC turned the country’s electricity system into an unmitigated disaster appeared to finally be sinking in.
“The DA re-emphasises our long-held position that any declaration of a state of disaster should be strictly ring-fenced around Eskom and the electricity sector. Most importantly, such a declaration must be subject to complete and transparent parliamentary oversight.”
He said the DA would write to Speaker of the National Assembly Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula requesting her to ensure the matter was urgently tabled in Parliament.
Cape Times