Government awaits legal advice on declaring state of disaster on energy crisis

Minister in the presidency Mondli Gungubele says the government is still seeking legal advice on declaring a national state of disaster on the Eskom energy crisis.

“Investigations are being done and I hope that we can be advised as quickly as possible in a manner that is consistent with the crisis. We have been asking for the advice and they have been looking at it,” said Gungubele.

The discussion on the declaration was at the top of the agenda at the two-day cabinet lekgotla at Sefako Makgatho presidential guest house in Pretoria on Thursday. The meeting is being chaired by President Cyril Ramaphosa. 

Speaking on the sidelines, Gungubele said the meeting will deliberate on the energy crisis, the state of service delivery, crime and the economy, among other issues.

“There is a strong desire in government to find ways of ending load-shedding as quickly as possible. A lot of interventions are taking place, be it sourcing energy from outside, fast-tracking emergency power, skills and upping the ante on maintaining the plants.

“But there is a call that a disaster declaration wouldn’t help us jump other processes which sometimes do not help with the response to the situation. We do not have a response yet on whether there is a legal base for us to declare a disaster.”

Gungubele said ensuring that Eskom’s plants are fully functioning is the government’s immediate task.

“That’s the biggest challenge we are confronted with and we need to ensure that there is a flow of megawatts to the system. We are trying to fast-track access to emergency energy.”

Furthermore, he said, “I want to reassure South Africans that we are finding different measures, with or without the state of disaster, to make a difference in turning around the situation.”

Asked whether a state of disaster would provide relief to businesses affected by load-shedding, he said: “We can’t speak about it as we have not even declared the state of disaster and to check what the implications are.”

Turning to the imminent cabinet reshuffle and the absence of deputy president David Mabuza at the meeting, Gungubele said Mabuza had tendered his apology to Ramaphosa.

“The deputy president has submitted his apology to the president. It’s only the president who can do an evaluation of that, but if he is sick, we cannot determine the frequency and the number of times he gets sick.”

On the restructuring of Ramaphosa’s cabinet, Gungubele pleaded for patience. 

“The president has said many times he knows he has a duty to fill those departments with ministers because you need a healthy capacity in as far as political leadership of government is concerned.

“Having people in acting positions does not help and the president has told the country that he is going to handle that. Whether it’s this morning or next week, please accept that we are not the president,” said Gungubele.

Resolutions taken at the lekgotla will inform Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address next Thursday in Cape Town.

TimesLIVE