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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a state of catastrophe with immediate effect to deal with the country’s severe power crisis, which includes prolonged daily blackouts.
Electricity shortages that have been years in the making as a result of delays in the construction of new coal-fired power plants; corruption in coal supply contracts; sabotage and failure to relax regulations to allow private providers to introduce renewable energy are some of the extremes that have led the Executive to make the decision.
“We are in the midst of a deep energy crisis,” Ramaphosa declared in his annual state of the nation address to Parliament. “The crisis has progressively evolved to affect all areas of society. We must act to lessen the impact of the crisis on farmers, small businesses, our water infrastructure and our transport network,” he added.
The declaration of the state of catastrophe comes at a time when power cuts last up to eight hours a day, affecting homes, factories and businesses in the nation of 60 million people.
The measure is not new: the “state of catastrophe” was previously implemented to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and the deadly floods that last year killed more than 400 people.
According to Ramaphosa, the declaration will allow his government to exempt essential services such as hospitals and water treatment plants from power cuts, and will allow the Executive to buy additional power from neighboring countries on an emergency basis.
The government could also help companies cope with the effects of widespread power outages, including increased availability of diesel generators and solar panels.
Eskom, the country’s electricity company, is unable to produce enough power due to frequent damage to its antiquated coal-fired power plants as well as years of corruption. Ramaphosa also announced that he will appoint an Electricity Minister, whose only job will be to deal with the electricity crisis.
Ramaphosa is expected to reshuffle his cabinet following the resignation of Vice President David Mabuza and changes at the top of the ruling African National Congress party. Likewise, it is expected that Ramaphosa will also appoint the newly elected vice president of the ANC, Paul Mashatile, to replace Mabuza.
with Reuters
