Nkosikhulule Nyembezi
Cape Town - The news that dominated last week’s debate on the State of the Nation Address in Parliament is that President Cyril Ramaphosa has finally declared a national disaster on the electricity crisis and announced an imminent Cabinet reshuffle.
It will include an appointment of a Minister of Electricity in the Presidency, who will focus full-time on working with Eskom to end load shedding and replacing the deputy president.
Public announcements on crucial policy and governance matters remain pivotal in our public life. Even this year, it was inconceivable that there would not be some to appease a nation battered by months of rolling electricity blackouts and economic insecurity.
Ramaphosa claimed South Africa has turned the corner and is heading towards “calmer seas”. In closing the debate, the president seemed to tell MPs and the nation last last Thursday that he would do all that he must, but he was not unequivocal.
He needs to make his intentions crystal clear. Instead of implementing the urgent tasks of governing, he focused on accusing some political parties of making a mockery of Parliament and attempting to depict the country as a failed state.
Unsurprisingly, that is his usual style. For many months though, Ramaphosa has prevaricated on the timing and the details, and it always seemed to be never quite the right moment.
Now, amid expectations that the worst of the crisis may be intensifying in many parts of the country, that excuse is running out of road.
The bad news is that Ramaphosa is still playing for time, to the country’s detriment. Sona announcements are failing to cascade through the State of the Province Addresses (Sopa) already underway.
The Cabinet reshuffle will not occur until the end of this month or later, which is an unreasonable delay.
When it gets underway, it will be lengthy and extensive to prioritise ANC factional politics above the country’s best interests. Yet, in a handful of provinces and municipalities, premiers and mayors should be taking a cue from the national government and announcing new executive members to stabilise the government and eliminate corrupt politicians.
Although the terms of reference of the state of disaster have not been finalised, Ramaphosa acknowledges that they must be wide, considering that ‘in a time of crisis, a single line of command and a line of march is needed’ and ‘the crisis has evolved to impact every sector of society’.
To address the crisis, Eskom will procure emergency power that is obtainable within six months to close the gap.
According to the Government Gazette, it has been declared to prevent ‘the possible progression to total blackout from occurring, and taking into account the possibility to augment existing measures already undertaken by the organs of state to deal with electricity supply constraint’.
The national state of disaster allows the government to make regulations and issue directions, bypassing some legislative steps.
The gazette stipulates that these regulations and directions may only be taken to assist and protect the public, provide relief, protect property, prevent or combat disruption or deal with the destructive nature and other effects of load shedding.
The disaster regulations may help to hasten emergency power procurement – like power ships – and procurement of parts and services for Eskom’s embattled power stations. It is a huge agenda.
No national state of disaster, starting this month, is likely to be complete before 2024 at the earliest. Even this may be optimistic.
The net result is that the state of disaster interventions will not be in full force before the 2024 national and provincial elections.
As the pessimistic tone of the Sona debate confirms, this delay in announcing and implementing the crucial details of what needs to be done needlessly delays the learning and implementation of lessons, creating additional risk. It is also a deliberately undemocratic choice.
It insults the people of this country, who have been through so much, particularly the households and businesses that have suffered losses because of the electricity crisis and the endemic corruption that benefits the elites.
Parliament and civil society formations must continue to press Ramaphosa to bring the cabinet reshuffle date forward and reveal details about the role of ordinary people in overcoming the electricity crisis.
There is no valid reason why the Cabinet reshuffle and the delineation of roles could not happen sooner.
There will soon be new opportunities to force the issue. The implementation of yet another steep electricity price increase coupled with the rising cost of food and other essential commodities is a particularly high-profile one.
We will find evidence in Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s budget speech on Wednesday.
The debates on the premiers’ Sopa in the nine provinces will likely highlight more evidence of hardship and indecisive leadership.
All these events at national and provincial levels may make Ramaphosa’s timetable unsustainable if pressure is adequate.
Several decisions can be taken in the coming weeks anyway so that we avert stage 8 of power blackouts as the country hits a grim new record as more than half (24 809MW) of Eskom’s installed capacity of 48 000MW was out of service on Monday morning.
The many challenges facing our country need to be nailed down now through genuine consultation and decisive action.
Public confidence and the need for inclusiveness require both.
The national state of disaster should also be unitary, covering the whole of the country, including the interests of rural communities.
After all, this has been an electricity crisis affecting South Africa, and the whole of South Africa should be reflected in the planning and implementation of intervention measures designed to bring relief to it.
Nyembezi is a researcher, policy analyst and human rights activist
Cape Times
* The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.