Meaningless or a putative move? Opposition parties react to ANC using state of disaster for energy crisis

Declaring a state of disaster will not solve the energy crisis, according to the EFF. 

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the party wants to use disaster management legislation used to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic to help end load-shedding. 

“[A] state of disaster will help us move with speed. The target of getting this done and dusted by the end of the year can move faster if we've got all hands on deck, we address issues of procurement faster and mobilise resources where they are needed, particularly in maintenance,” Mbalula said.

The idea of a national state of disaster comes months after President Cyril Ramaphosa rejected the idea after the DA proposed it.

The EFF rejected the ANC’s proposal, saying it was meaningless. 

The call, made by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the ANC's national executive committee meeting, “is an empty pretence of doing something about the electricity crisis and will not end the crippling electricity blackouts”, the EFF said.

The pandemic was an “instructive lesson on the ability of the ANC government to use tragedy and disaster as a means to loot state resources”. 

“There was no verifiable intervention that saved lives when South Africa was under a state of national disaster during the pandemic and huge corruption occurred under the guise of emergency procurement of personal protective equipment.

“If South Africa were to go under a state of disaster due to the energy crisis, the puppets of imperialism who have already taken loans from the US to destroy our coal industry will use the lack of oversight by government institutions to privatise Eskom and destroy our energy sovereignty.”

According to the EFF, there will be unregulated approval of the “plugging of parasitic independent power producers into South Africa's electricity grid, further bleeding the country dry to enrich Ramaphosa”. 

“The consideration of a state of national disaster is premised on greed, corruption and an uncontrollable desire to privatise Eskom without being held accountable. It will bring no permanent solution to the energy challenges we are facing and must be rejected with the contempt it deserves,” the EFF said.

DA MP Ghaleb Cachalia said parliament needs to fulfil the function of watchdog to ensure the national state of disaster does not become another opportunity for Covid-like misappropriations by ANC ministers and officials.

“It is crucial that the envisaged state of disaster is ring-fenced around Eskom and overseen by an independent panel of suitably qualified experts to ensure probity and transparency,” he said.

“Should this putative move by government be implemented it is of utmost importance that the president and his implementing minister [Pravin] Gordhan be placed on terms: mess this one up and you will have driven the final nail into South Africa's economy and the lives and livelihoods of millions of citizens.

“This initiative will be under our intense scrutiny, particularly as it will enable disaster relief funding to address immediate action while fully costed measures to augment generation are presented and actioned without let or hindrance and that maintenance and repairs are carried out with urgency and transparency,” Cachalia said.

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