The South African government on Wednesday revoked a national “state of disaster” that was declared in February to manage the country’s crippling power crisis, reported Reuters.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced disaster regulations on February 9 to fight the electricity crisis that included daily power cuts by state utility Eskom due to frequent breakdowns at its old coal-fired power stations and years of widespread corruption. The country’s ongoing energy crisis has crippled multiple sectors including the healthcare sector and telecommunications services.
The state of disaster bestowed additional powers in the hands of the South African government to respond to the crisis, including by permitting emergency procurement procedures with fewer bureaucratic delays and less oversight.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) minister Thembi Nkadimeng said the government’s Energy Crisis Committee will now work to reduce the effect of power cuts using existing legislation and contingency arrangements.
The newly appointed Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa visited the country’s troubled utility power stations in recent weeks as part of efforts to alleviate the effect of the power crisis.
The CoGTA said that the electricity minister also had consultations within the government and with Eskom aimed at resolving the electricity shortages.
The government said it decided to terminate the disaster regulations in view of those developments. Notably, some of the emergency measures would continue to be imposed.
South Africa is facing its worst electricity crisis in decades, with rolling blackouts of up to six hours a day. Power utility Eskom, which generates over 90% of the country’s electricity, has been struggling to meet demand and implementing different stages of outages for weeks.
The state of disaster is an emergency measure that was previously implemented by the South African government to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the deadly floods that killed more than 400 people last year.
