National state of disaster over energy crisis on the cards

The ANC and its alliance partners have recommended that a national state of disaster be declared over the energy crisis to ensure that sufficient financial resources are allocated to end load-shedding.

This would be similar to the state of disaster declared by the government during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when a handful of men and women in the national coronavirus command council wielded sweeping powers that included dipping into departmental budgets to provide a soft landing for pandemic-hit businesses and individuals.

The recommendation follows calls by, among others, small businesses, the DA, the National Planning Commission, and the agriculture sector, who have said a state of disaster would give the government wide-ranging powers to intervene in the nation’s worsening energy crisis.

Speaking on the final day of the ANC lekgotla on Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said work was under way in the government to ascertain whether the requirements for the declaration of the state of disaster could be met.

The possible declaration will be discussed at Wednesday’s cabinet lekgotla, he said.

“It was observed that it would be necessary to have a national disaster because that would enable us to have the instruments that would be necessary to fully address the challenge that our nation faces,” Ramaphosa told delegates during his closing address at the lekgotla.

“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 recommendation from the ANC, Cosatu and SACP comes about six months after Ramaphosa rejected the idea in favour of the so-called energy action plan, the biggest feature of which was to open the door wide open for private sector energy generation.

The DA tentatively welcomed the ANC recommendation with MP Ghaleb Cachalia, who speaks on public enterprises issues, saying any declaration of the state of disaster should be ring-fenced around Eskom and the electricity sector.

“Most importantly, such a declaration must be tabled in parliament in order to ensure that there is full accountability,” said Kevin Mileham, DA public enterprises shadow minister.

“The immediate outcome of a ring-fenced state of disaster is that it will enable the government to bypass its own self-imposed obstacles, bottlenecks and cost inflations in the form of unworkable labour legislation, localisation requirements, cadre deployment, and preferential procurement,” he said.

Meanwhile, Eskom told its debt investors in a Sens notice on Monday that the delay in releasing its annual statements — which were made public on December 23 2022 — has resulted in a delay in finalising its interim results for the period to September 30 2022. It said the interims are expected to be released by March 31.

maekot@businesslive.co.za