Johannesburg - ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula insists the country’s load-shedding (energy) crisis would be speedily and efficiently resolved by imposing a national state of disaster.
He told a post-ANC NEC lekgotla press conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday this will help the government to focus on the challenge and implement decisions with speed.
The call for a declaration of a national state of disaster was first brought to the fore by ANC president, Cyril Ramaphosa while closing the party’s lekgotla on Monday evening.
NEWS: ANC SG Fikile Mbalula insists that the country’s energy crisis would be resolved by imposing national state of disaster. He told a post-ANC NEC lekgotla presser in Joburg that this will help the government to focus on the challenge & implement decisions with speed. @IOL
— Sihle Mavuso (@ZANewsFlash) January 31, 2023
The call drew immediate reservations from some quarters, with the EFF saying during Covid-19 such a declaration was abused and taxpayers' money was allegedly stolen on a massive scale.
However, on Tuesday, Mbalula dug in his heels and said the country needs this measure so the crisis of load shedding could be addressed by the end of the year.
Among other benefits he said would be brought about by the declaration of a state of disaster would be easing the cumbersome process of procuring goods for the power utility.
“A state of disaster will help us to move with speed; the target of getting this done and dusted by end of the year can be achieved even faster.
“If you’ve got all hands on deck you address issues of procurement quite faster and then we mobilise resources where they are needed for intervention, particularly when it comes to maintenance.
BREAKING NEWS: Eskom has just announced that it will implement stage 5 load shedding from 12pm today until 9pm. After that, it will be stage 6 until 5am on Wednesday. Thereafter it said it would be stage 5 until further notice.
— Sihle Mavuso (@ZANewsFlash) January 31, 2023
“And then we got people with capacity, engineering and all of that to advise the command centre,” Mbalula said in justifying the call which he hinted would likely be implemented in the coming days or weeks.
Mbalula said they have been getting “contradictory” stories about the problem of load shedding so experts had to to be roped in to help deal with the matter.
“We can’t speak as if we are experts, we didn't become experts during Covid when a team of doctors under the Health Department were telling and educating us about the virus, not just a group of politicians coming together and defining themselves as virologists, we left it to them.
“So, our response to Covid was scientifically driven, so, our response to dealing with load shedding must be scientifically driven and informed by practitioners because somebody can be a good lawyer, but not good as an engineer.
“As a lawyer, you have good expertise of dismissing people at work, you know how to to do it, but you rely on other people when it comes to engineering capacity.
“So, you need a combination of all of this, that is what we have directed (the) government to do in response to this (energy crisis).
Video: African News Agency (ANA)
“Our confidence that this will be done away with (this year) is informed by that. Urgency, focus through the command that meets almost weekly and examines what is happening
“(The) ad hoc approach is not helping; denial that we are in a crisis is not helping us, so shutdowns and all of that they are not helpful,” Mbalula said.
On the issue of Eskom being moved to the Department of Energy under Minister Gwede Mantashe, Mbalula said the ANC has given the government a clear mandate to do so.
At the present moment, Eskom falls under the Department of Public Enterprises which is politically headed by Minister Pravin Gordhan.
“The conference has given us a clear mandate, for instance, that Eskom must go to Energy (department), the president is working on those issues.”