Guessing game: why a minister of electricity?
LOAD shedding remains a big problem affecting the country, and President Cyril Ramaphosa and his government are racing against time as the outages cost the economy R1 billion a day.
This problem has forced Ramaphosa, during his State of the Nation Address (Sona), to announce a minister of electricity, which many South Africans thought bizarre and questioned what other ministry was on the cards. Could there be a minister of potholes or service delivery?
The new minister will be expected to focus solely on the ongoing loadshedding crisis and will have the difficult task of bringing it to an end.
Ramaphosa said the new post would be within the Presidency.
“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.
“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,” said Ramaphosa.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula quipped that the new minister must be ready to hit the ground running as he would be expected to eat, sleep, and drink at Eskom.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, who remains the Eskom shareholder, will still be expected to play his role within the power utility and will also be overseeing the energy transition programme.
“So as 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 (stateowned enterprise) holding company,” said Ramaphosa.
Mbalula on Friday also compared the minister of electricity to a project manager in dealing with the energy crisis in South Africa.
Ramaphosa said load shedding means that households and supermarkets are unable to keep food fresh; the water supply is often disrupted; traffic lights do not work; and streets are not lit at night.
“Without a reliable supply of electricity, our efforts to grow an inclusive economy that creates jobs and reducing poverty will not succeed.
“Therefore, as we outline our agenda for the year ahead, our most immediate task is to dramatically reduce the severity of load shedding in the coming months and ultimately end load shedding altogether.
“Under these conditions, we cannot proceed as we usually would. The people of South Africa want action, they want solutions, and they want the government to work for them.
“They simply want to know when a problem like load shedding will be brought to an end. We are therefore focused on those actions that will make a meaningful difference now; that will enable real progress within the next year; and that will lay the foundation for a sustained recovery into the future,” Ramaphosa said.
Political analyst Xolani Dube said the ANC expects anything because there’s no criteria for appointing a minister and there’s no merit to appointing a minister, “so I don’t think we need to create criteria”.
“We have to question why we need this minister. It would be better to know the job description of this minister. This is just a minister, and to become a minister, there’s no criteria, no merit, no academics; it’s a political appointment. It can be Pule Mabe or it can be anyone,” said Dube.
He said the poor black people in the country were in trouble.
“Even when Ramaphosa appoints this minister, he’s not thinking like a poor person but like a businessperson. The minister is not meant to solve the problems of electricity but to solve the problems of business people in the energy business,” Dube said.
Energy expert Chris Yelland said the country now has five main ministries and ministers involved with electricity governance, with ministers who are often at odds with each other in this regard and where it is often clear that they do not share a common vision:
“1. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy and its minister are responsible for energy and electricity policy, planning and regulation, coal, oil, gas, and liquid fuel supply, and the security of the electricity supply.
“2. The Department of Public Enterprises and its minister are responsible for oversight of Eskom as a shareholder representative, as well as structural reform, restructuring, unbundling, establishing the independent National Transmission Company of SA, and the Just Energy Transition (JET).
“3. The Department of Electricity and the new minister of electricity in the Presidency are responsible for resolving the electricity crisis, the Eskom recovery plan, the end to load shedding, and implementing the specific actions of the state of disaster.
“4. The Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs and its minister are responsible for municipalities and resolving municipal debt to Eskom, local government, and co-operative governance, and now also for administering the state of disaster declared to deal with load shedding and the electricity crisis gripping the land.
“5. National Treasury and its minister are responsible for money matters: rescuing Eskom from its arrears debt trap, obtaining JET funding of more than R1 trillion, resolving municipal arrears debt to Eskom, ensuring funding for diesel, and funding the actions coming out of the state of disaster declared in electricity.
“Truly a complex environment indeed, especially where the leaders do not share a common vision, and perhaps are not well suited to quick and decisive action … ” Yelland said.
Velenkosini Hlabisa, leader of the IFP, slammed Ramaphosa’s announcement of a minister of electricity, saying that at this rate, there might be a minister of potholes.
“The president passed a vote of no conference to ministers Gordhan and Gwede Mantashe. We really do not need a minister of electricity; we might end up with a minister of potholes or a minister of pit toilets. All we need is a minister who will deal with minerals and energy and resolve the crisis around electricity,” Hlabisa said.