South Africa Declares “State Of Disaster” To Tackle Energy Crisis

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Thursday a “state of disaster” citing the country’s extreme power shortages which caused a threat to the economy and social structure.

The lack of electricity has been in the making for years, with delays in building new coal-fired power stations, fraudulent coal supply contracts, criminal interferences and failures to simplify regulation and allow private providers who hastily bring renewable energy.

In his annual State of the Nation Address to parliament, Ramaphosa said, “We are in the grip of a profound energy crisis.”

“The crisis has progressively evolved to affect every part of society. We must act to lessen the impact of the crisis on farmers, on small businesses, on our water infrastructure and our transport network”, he said.

The power cuts are likely to reduce economic growth in the continent’s most industrialised country to 0.3% in 2023.

The government declaring a national state of disaster allows it to have the power to control a crisis, including the authorization of emergency procurement procedures with reduced bureaucratic delays and minimum inaccuracy.

The measure was to allow health authorities to function more swiftly during the COVID-19 pandemic, though some analysts were doubtful it would help the government grow the power supply quickly.

Eskom, a South African energy company, stated that it would analyse the details regarding the declaration before commenting.

Brighton Hlupego, a street trader outside Cape Town City Hall where Ramaphosa gave his speech, said the biggest hurdles South Africans faced were poverty, unemployment and electricity.

Hlupego said, “To some extent, he gave some solutions to the problems, but these won’t be solved easily.”

“The state of disaster is a good thing but we don’t want to see them (politicians) put the money in their pockets.”

The Democratic Alliance, the biggest opposition party, said it would object to the “state of disaster” declaration in court, asserting Ramaphosa’s party sanctioned meaningless regulations and exploited procurement processes during the pandemic.

He gave his speech 45 minutes late after opposition lawmakers, from the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters party, disturbed the proceedings and forcefully tried to get on the stage.