Opposition political parties have slammed the plans to declare the Eskom load shedding a state of disaster as a move that will take away people’s power to exercise checks and balances on energy procurement related matters.
ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa announced after the party’s NEC Lekgotla on Monday that it was looking into declaring the power utility’s continuous load shedding a national state of disaster.
The move comes a few weeks before Ramaphosa is scheduled to deliver the State of the Nation Address (Sona), which is expected to update citizens on plans to deal with the energy crisis.
But some political parties are wary of the plan, given the corruption and mismanagement that took place under the disaster declaration during the Covid-19 outbreak.
GOOD Party’s secretary-general Brett Herron said the declaration would not bring magical quick-fix solutions to improve the performance of Eskom’s existing power stations.
“The ANC’s proposal to declare an electricity state of disaster reflects its desperation to appear to be doing something, anything, to create the impression that it is nominally in control.
“The idea that a state of disaster will provide the government with a tool to speed up the procurement of energy – for example, the procurement of power ships – sounds plausible, but won’t stop the implementation of critical decisions being delayed through court challenges.”
Herron also said there were provisions in the Public Finance Management Act that provided for access to resources in times of crisis, along with provision for deviations in procurement legislation if and where necessary.
“However, accessing the emergency funding doesn’t depend on our resorting to another hazardous state of disaster,” he added.
“Declaring a state of disaster is a resort to populism that amounts to an admission that the government is incapable of solving South Africa’s problems through ordinary governance procedures… nor do we need another minister to be added to the Gwede Mantashe/Pravin Gordhan mix under the Disaster Management Act.”
The UDM believes that South Africans need to be convinced of the need for the proposed state of disaster.
The party’s leader, Bantu Holomisa, said: “This is just to create a licence and an environment to loot again as was done previously during Covid-19.”
Holomisa also called for the funds intended to help Eskom to rather be administered by a credible financial institution such as the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).
The DA vowed to fight to ensure that any state of disaster on load shedding would be actively monitored.
DA MP Kevin Mileham said his party would table a proposal to Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana, calling for the creation of a special inspector-general.
The inspector-general, he said, would have sweeping powers to investigate and take pre-emptive action to prevent corruption at every level of government.
Mileham also called for the establishment of an ad hoc committee at Parliament level to exercise an oversight role.
Weekend Argus