With immediate effect, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has proclaimed a state of disaster to address the serious electrical issue there, which includes frequent daily blackouts.
“Extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures. The energy crisis is an existential threat to our economy and social fabric,” said Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation address on Thursday night.
The 60 million-person nation is experiencing rolling power outages that can last up to eight hours each day when the state of disaster is declared. The declaration of a state of calamity was previously used as an emergency response to the disastrous floods that claimed more than 400 lives in 2017 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Ramaphosa claims that the declaration will allow his administration to purchase additional power from other nations in an emergency and to exempt vital facilities like hospitals and water treatment plants from power outages.
Additionally, the government will be able to help businesses cope with the effects of widespread power outages by expanding the use of solar panels and diesel generators.
Eskom, the nation’s energy provider, is unable to generate enough electricity because of regular failures at its outdated coal-fired power plants and years of corruption.
Additionally, Ramaphosa declared that he would name an electrical minister whose main responsibility would be to address the current electricity problem.
After interruptions by lawmakers from the left-leaning Economic Freedom Fighters opposition party, who were ultimately ejected from the meeting by security agents, Ramaphosa’s address was delayed by 45 minutes.
Following the resignation of Deputy President David Mabuza and changes in the leadership of the dominant African National Congress party, he is anticipated to reorganize his government. Mabuza is anticipated to be replaced by Paul Mashatile, the recently elected vice president of the ANC, by Ramaphosa.
