President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a State of Disaster with immediate effect, and created a Minister of Electricity to deal with South Africa’s energy crisis amid ongoing load shedding.
The new minister will focus solely on fixing Eskom and restoring power to the people, while R1.5 trillion will be invested in the economy over the next five years in renewable energy, green hydrogen and electric vehicles.
“We must act to lessen the impact of the energy crisis on farmers, on small businesses, on our water infrastructure and our transport network,” Ramaphosa said as he delivered his seventh State of the Nation Address at the Cape Town City Hall last night.
The Minister of Electricity will work with the Eskom board and management on ending load shedding and ensuring that the Energy Action Plan is implemented without delay.
The president clarified that the Minister of Public Enterprises will remain the shareholder representative of the power utility and steer the restructuring of Eskom and ensure the establishment of the transmission company.
The Energy Action Plan outlined five key interventions:
– Fix Eskom’s coal-fired power stations and improve the availability of existing supply.
– Enable and accelerate private investment in generation capacity.
– Accelerate procurement of new capacity from renewables, gas and battery storage.
– Unleash businesses and households to invest in rooftop solar power.
– Fundamentally transform the electricity sector to achieve long-term energy security.
Ramaphosa said the National Treasury is finalising a solution to Eskom’s R400 billion debt, while it has launched a programme to buy excess power from private generators and has already secured 300 MW from neighbouring countries.
The president said SAPS has established a dedicated team with “senior leadership” to deal with the pervasive corruption and theft at several power stations that has contributed to the poor performance of these stations.
Intelligence-driven operations at Eskom-related sites have so far resulted in 43 arrests.
SONA kicked off in chaos when the EFF staged a protest inside the chamber and some of its members stormed the stage where the president sat.
This resulted in Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa Ngcakula calling upon security guards to remove the Red Berets, many brandishing placards calling for Ramaphosa’s removal, and proceedings were suspended for 10 minutes.
The drama started as Ramaphosa was interrupted by EFF leader Julius Malema who raised a point of order to discuss the Phala Phala scandal.
However, Mapisa Ngcakula said it was the wrong platform and following several interruptions, the EFF was booted from the chamber.
Malema said outside: “The president swept the Phala Phala matter under the carpet using his security forces.
“He came with elite forces of the police to the house.
“The Constitutional Court ruled that we must be treated as individual members of Parliament.
“What she did was treat us as a group.”