Ahead of the State Of the Nation Address, Democratic Alliance member of parliament, Kevin Mileham is among the politicians that were calling on the President to share concrete plans of resolving the power issue that is currently facing South Africa.
The entire country has been at the receiving end of rolling blackouts for a period of 16 years and some experts have been advocating for a solid solution to this dilemma.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has responded by declaring a State of Disaster over South Africa’s energy crisis in this year’s Address.
The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has also gazetted the Declaration of the State of Disaster, which began with an immediate effect.
in an interview, Ted Blom, who is One of the energy analyst who have been suggesting that the government implements this solution said:
I am glad that there is outside intervention to resolve the country’s energy crisis.
Ramaphosa has also informed Members of Parliament that he plans to appoint a Minister of Electricity in the Presidency to deal more effectively and urgently with the power energy challenges.
Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe has come through to defend the appointment of the Minister of Electricity, pointing out that there’s no time to resolve the energy crisis and the country cannot wait for 24 months.
Mantashe further explained that this was being done because there were clear time-frames and milestones that would have to be achieved.
"As this is a new Ministry inside the office of the Presidency, I guess they need to be careful in scoping that job and making sure that it's exactly fine-tuned to deliver what every South African is waiting for", highlighted Blom.
Ramaphosa has also removed the other bottlenecks and other obstacles as one of the measures of fixing the energy crisis in South Africa.
