WATCH: Energy emergency poses risk to rule of law

The energy crisis is rapidly draining morale faster than strained batteries during load-shedding, as the stark facts are that load-shedding has been a feature of SA for 15 years — more than half of the time the ANC has been in power. The ANC has a lot to answer for because its members make up the ranks of the cabinet ministers who have largely been responsible for our inability to tackle the crisis head on.

President Cyril Ramaphosa alluded to the fact that a plan is being hatched — another one. The president says that he will, in the coming days, announce a comprehensive set of actions to achieve much faster progress in tackling load-shedding, which has worsened significantly over the past three years and has intensified in recent weeks to the point of being implemented at stage 6.

In his weekly newsletter, the President acknowledged that it was “no time for business as usual”, adding that “we need to act boldly to make load-shedding a thing of the past”.

He stressed that, while there were no easy solutions, the government was committed to exploring “every avenue” and using “every opportunity to ensure that we generate enough electricity to meet the country’s needs”.

The question is, do we need a state of emergency when the minister is empowered to clear away red tape by the Electricity Regulation Act? Too often around the world and here in SA we have seen a crisis manufactured into a gateway for corruption.

Joining Michael Avery is Mark Swilling, NPC commissioner; Joanne Bate, the Industrial Development Corporation’s COO; and Thabo Molekoa, MD at Siemens Energy.