South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, amid mounting public anger, has declared a national “state of disaster” over the country’s crippling power crisis, warning that it poses an “existential threat” to the economy and social fabric.
During a state of the nation address in Cape Town Ramaphosa said the measure would take immediate effect.
“We are in the grip of a profound energy crisis,” he stressed. “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”.
Therefore, he hastened to add, his government is “declaring a national state of disaster to respond to the electricity crisis and its effects”.
In recent months, state energy company Eskom has been scheduling power outages for up to 12 hours a day in order to prevent the increasing collapse of coal power plants, the mainstay of the country’s power network.
As a result, Ramaphosa’s government has come under blistering public wrath with factories grinding to a halt, crops withering and food rotting.
“Our most immediate task is to dramatically reduce the severity of load shedding in the coming months,” Ramaphosa said, pledging support for Eskom.
The declaration of a disaster “will enable us to exempt critical infrastructure such as hospitals and water treatment plants from load shedding . . . it will enable us to accelerate energy projects and limit regulatory requirements”, he remarked.
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Ramaphosa has faced heavy backlash from the opposition, the Democratic Alliance, the biggest opposition party in South Africa.
The party said the state of disaster would “empower the ANC to abuse procurement processes and issue nonsensical regulations that have nothing to do with the electricity crisis” while vowing to challenge the measure in court.
Ramaphosa’s speech in the parliament saw major disruptions, as opposition lawmakers especially from the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Party walked out en masse. Some members of the party stormed the stage, causing his speech to be delayed by 45 minutes.
