Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele backs declaration of a state of disaster

Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele has backed the move by Cyril Ramaphosa to declare a state of emergency last week.

Gungubele says the declaration of the National State of Disaster on Energy will assist in the speedy resolution of energy supply challenges, whilst minimising its impact and contributing to the rebuilding process.

Speaking during his address on Tuesday’s debate on this year’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), the minister said many sectors would benefit from the stable energy supply, leading to the creation of much-needed jobs.

Power supplier Eskom has been battling to keep the lights on for the past few months, leading to increased stages of load shedding and a devastating impact on lives, livelihoods, and businesses.

At the State of the Nation Address, the President explained that the declaration will enable the government to “provide practical measures” to assist businesses that have been devastated by the effects of load shedding.

“As we stabilise the grid for the current economic environment, we must not forget that in the future, carbon intensity will be one of the key factors that affect the ability of our country to produce and trade in the global economy,” he said.

“To this end, there are several large initiatives that have taken off and should be scaling up in 2023/24, such as the implementation of the Green Hydrogen Strategy.

“South Africa’s Hydrogen Society (HySA) Roadmap spans for the next 10 years. Thus far, nine out of the 19 green hydrogen implementation projects that were identified have been successfully registered with Infrastructure South Africa.

“As a result, we are witnessing the resurgence of the economy with our growth figures for the third quarter of 2022 at 1.6%; growth in the investment profile of the country, and an increase in developmental projects.

“We are more than 95% of the way to reaching the goal of attracting R1.2 trillion in investments set by the President in 2018.”

In addition, Ramaphosa said that where technically possible, it will also enable the government to exempt critical infrastructure, such as hospitals and water treatment plants, from load shedding.

It will enable the government to accelerate energy projects and limit regulatory requirements while maintaining rigorous environmental protection, as well as procurement principles and technical standards.

Furthermore, a Minister of Energy in the Presidency is expected to be appointed to focus solely on bringing the country out of the current energy deficit.

Prior to the declaration, the government had already been working on curbing the devastating load shedding, as the President announced a plan to address the crisis in July 2022.

Gungubele said this year’s SONA signals many rays of possibilities and an imminent end to a rather devastating period, which was ushered in by COVID-19, catastrophic floods, serious cases of corruption and maladministration that were laid bare at the State Capture Commission, and the energy crisis.