South Africa invokes disaster law to tackle energy crisis

Opposition Economic Freedom Fighters party members are removed by presidential task force and officials as President Cyril Ramaphosa attempts to deliver his state-of-the-nation address Thursday. Pic/AFP

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday declared a national "state of disaster" over his country's crippling power shortages, saying they posed an existential threat to the economy and social fabric.

The electricity crunch has been years in the making, a product of delays in building new coal-fired power stations, corruption in coal-supply contracts, criminal sabotage and failures to ease up regulation to enable private providers to bring renewable energy on tap.

"We are in the grip of a profound energy crisis," Ramaphosa said in his annual State of the Nation Address to parliament.

"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."

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State electricity utility Eskom is implementing the worst rolling blackouts on record, leaving households in the dark, disrupting manufacturing and hurting businesses of all sizes.

The power cuts are expected to reduce economic growth in Africa's most industrialised nation to just 0.3% this year.

Declaring a national state of disaster gives the government additional powers to respond to a crisis, including permitting emergency procurement procedures with fewer bureaucratic delays and less oversight.T he legislation enabled health authorities to respond swiftly to the COVID-19 pandemic, but some analysts doubt it will help the government expand power supply quicker. The biggest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, said it would challenge the "state of disaster" declaration in court, alleging Ramaphosa's party issued nonsensical regulations and abused procurement processes during the pandemic.

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