The government has formally ended the national state of calamity declared just under two months ago to deal with South Africa’s energy issue.
Thembi Nkadimeng, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, said in a gazette released shortly before noon on Wednesday that the state of disaster had been lifted.
“All regulations and directions made in terms of section 27(2) of the [National Disaster] Act pursuant to the declaration of the national state of disaster to deal with the impact or the severe electricity supply constraint is hereby repealed with immediate effect.”
Nkadimeng will update the media at 14:00 on Wednesday, along with Minister of Power Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, who was appointed after President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a state of calamity in his State of the Country Address.
The administration stated in a statement published ahead of the briefing that declaring a state of calamity was a “necessary response” to the impact that critical levels of load shedding were having on the economy and sensitive sectors including as health and small enterprises. It was said that after the disaster declaration, a number of rules were put in place to assist the Energy Action Plan and guarantee a coordinated response across government.
“The state of disaster enabled government to enhance interventions by the National Energy Crisis Committee in terms of the Energy Action Plan,” the statement read.
Ramokgopa’s hiring was also cited as a “significant enabler” of the improved power supply. Ramokgopa has subsequently conducted supervision visits to power plants and had meetings with government agencies, including Eskom.
“As a structure that integrates areas of responsibility and resources within government, the National Energy Crisis Committee provides support to the Minister (Ramokgopa) in the identification and resolution of bottlenecks. In view of these developments, the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Ms Thembisile Nkadimeng, has decided to terminate the National State of Disaster,” the statement read.
This comes after Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana informed Lawmakers on Wednesday that he had chosen to withdraw Eskom’s exemption from the Public Financial Management Act “for now” in order to speak with the auditor-general and Eskom’s auditors further.
Godongwana issued a special government gazette on Friday exempting Eskom from reporting wasteful and irregular expenditure that did not result from corruption in its yearly financial accounts. The exception, which was intended to help Eskom obtain an unqualified audit and raise its credit ratings, has been widely criticised.
In a media announcement, Eskom stated that it would not comment on the recent revocation of the exemption or the state of catastrophe awaiting further discussions with the government.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) and the trade union Solidarity both stated earlier on Wednesday that the state attorney general notified them that the government would be removing the national state of disaster to solve the energy problem.
OUTA filed a judicial challenge immediately after the state of disaster was proclaimed in February, claiming that it was “irrational, arbitrary and unlawful” Similarly, Solidarity filed a legal challenge to the proclamation.
The government has not filed any responding papers in the case. OUTA had intended to meet with the court on April 12 to arrange a hearing date.
OUTA and Solidarity have now decided to drop their judicial applications.
