President Cyril Ramaphosa sought to bring hope to the nation in his state of the nation (Sona) on Thursday as the energy crisis drags on and the economy underperforms.
Ramaphosa dedicated large parts of his speech to tackling the power crisis but indicated there were no fresh plans specifically relating to Eskom.
Ramaphosa had a rocky start to his speech after EFF members tried to prevent him from delivering his address. EFF leader Julius Malema led the charge, saying the president had taken parliament to court and so had no confidence in the institution. Several other EFF MPs also objected to Ramaphosa addressing the house. They were eventually thrown out by parliamentary security.
Ramaphosa was then allowed to continue with his address.
At the top of Ramaphosa’s announcements was the looming appointment of the minister of electricity to place in the presidency.
He also declared a national state of disaster on energy with immediate effect.
Despite this, Ramaphosa said minister of public enterprises Pravin Gordhan would remain the shareholder representative at Eskom.
The move is a dramatic departure from the ANC 55th national conference resolution to move Eskom to the department of mineral resources and energy, which was sponsored by minister Gwede Mantashe.
Politically, the new ministry will be seen as a compromise to not pick sides between Mantashe and Gordhan on issues pertaining to Eskom and policy on energy.
“To deal more effectively and urgently with the challenges that confront us, I will appoint a minister of electricity in the presidency to assume full responsibility for overseeing all aspects of the electricity crisis response, including the work of the National Energy Crisis Committee,” said Ramaphosa.
The (energy) minister will focus full-time, and work with the Eskom board and management, on ending load-shedding and ensuring that the Energy Action Plan is implemented without delay.
— President Cyril Ramaphosa
“The minister will focus full-time, and work with the Eskom board and management, on ending load-shedding and ensuring that the Energy Action Plan is implemented without delay.
“To remove any confusion, the minister of public enterprises will remain the shareholder representative of Eskom and steer the restructuring of Eskom, ensure the establishment of the transmission company, oversee the implementation of the just energy transition programme and oversee the establishment of the SOE holding company,” he went on.
“The process of restructuring government will give us an opportunity to determine the positioning of various areas of responsibilities, and how the various ministries and departments can best serve our national objectives. We are focusing our attention on the energy crisis right now and will address the restructuring of government in due course.”
He further announced his government would act with speed to prevent a water crisis, through investment in projects to build dams and maintain existing ones across the country.
This was necessary to ensure water security for personal and economic use.
In his spirited attempt to infuse hope, Ramaphosa said small business, most of which are battling for survival owing to load-shedding, would also be a major focus of government’s work this year.
This included a plan, through the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa), to allocate R1.4bn to assist more than 90,000 entrepreneurs, as well as R10bn fund to support small businesses.
As part of interventions to do good by small businesses, Ramaphosa said the licensing of the Post Bank would lay the foundation for the creation of a state bank whose main task would be to provide financial assistance to SMMEs, youth- and women-owned businesses.
It remains to be seen, however, if Ramaphosa’s attempt to bring hope will bear fruit.
He believes it could: “We need to stay the course. We need, as a nation, at this time more than any other, to reveal our true character. We need to work together and leave no-one behind.”
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