Electricity minister’s powers signed, sealed and soon to be gazetted
Kgosientsho Ramokgopa’s powers allocated by the president have still not been made public
President Cyril Ramaphosa has delegated minister of electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa his responsibilities, but these haven’t been made public yet.
Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said a proclamation allocating Ramokgopa his powers had been signed and would soon be gazetted.
“The president has not failed to allocate powers to the minister of electricity. The issue has been resolved, the proclamation has been signed. You will have the details of that proclamation once it has been gazetted,” Magwenya said on Monday.
“Let’s dispense with that notion that the president has failed to deliver in that regard.
“Yes, it has taken time, as it should, because there were consultations that had to be held to ensure that in resolving this electricity crisis we do so in a manner harmonious with respect to the workings of government, [and] we take into consideration that the portfolio is not a permanent portfolio and therefore whatever powers you allocate to it you do not do so at the risk of causing short-term or long-term instability in government,” said Magwenya.
He could not give a time frame for the gazetting, but said it would be “as soon as possible” as the proclamation has been signed.
Ramokgopa’s powers and responsibilities have been a matter of speculation after media reports of a turf war in the cabinet since his appointment in March.
Ramaphosa later denied there was a stand-off over control of Eskom.
When he appointed Ramokgopa in March, Ramaphosa said the primary task of the new minister would be to reduce the severity and frequency of load-shedding.
The president said the new minister will have political responsibility, authority and control over all critical aspects of the Energy Action Plan.
“This will help to deal with the challenge of fragmentation of responsibility across various departments and ministers, which, while appropriate under normal circumstances, is not conducive to a crisis response,” he said.
The minister will be expected to facilitate co-ordination of the many departments and entities involved in the crisis response, work with Eskom’s leadership to turn around the performance of existing power stations and accelerate the procurement of new generation capacity.
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