South Africa Declares National 'State of Disaster' To Combat Power Outages

On Thursday, south African President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national "state of disaster" to address the rampant power outages plaguing the nation.

The official argued that the power outages posed an existential threat to the country's economy and social fabric. South Africa's electricity crunch has been years in the making and is a result of delays in the construction of new coal-fired power stations, corruption in coal-supply contracts, criminal sabotage, and continued failures to ease up regulations.

South Africa's National State of Disaster

During Ramaphosa's annual State of the Nation Address to parliament, the president said South Africa is on the verge of facing a profound energy crisis. He added that the issue has progressively evolved to affect all aspects of society.

Ramaphosa added that the nation needs to act to lessen the crisis's impact on farmers, small businesses, water infrastructure, and the transport network. Separately, state electricity utility Eskom is implementing the worst rolling blackouts on record that have left households without light, disrupted manufacturing, and impacted businesses of all sizes.

As per Yahoo News, many are now expecting the power cuts to reduce economic growth in Africa's most industrialized nation to only 0.3% this year. With Ramaphosa's declaration of a state of disaster, the government gains additional powers to respond to a crisis. This includes permitting emergency procurement procedures with fewer bureaucratic delays and less oversight.

The legislation allowed health authorities to respond more swiftly to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some analysts argue that it would not help the South African government expand the power supply faster.

On the other hand, Eskom, which implemented the record blackouts, noted that it would work on studying the details of the declaration before making any comments. According to Yahoo News, it comes as a street trader outside Cape Town City Hall, Brighton Hlupego, said that the most concerning problems in the country were poverty, unemployment, and electricity.

Record Power Outages

He added that, to some extent, Ramaphosa gave some solutions to the issues but noted that the problems would take time to resolve. Hlupego pointed out that the state of disaster is a good thing but argued that the people do not want to see corrupt government officials pocket the money.

The biggest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, revealed that it would challenge Ramaphosa's declaration in court, arguing that the president's party issued nonsensical regulations and even abused procurement processes during the health crisis.

On Thursday, the South African president also said that the government was already working on a mechanism to target essential income support for the most vulnerable citizens within fiscal constraints.

Ramaphosa noted that the government's most pressing concern is to dramatically reduce the severity of load shedding in the next few months. He also pledged support for Eskom, which currently has low funds for crucial maintenance and is fighting looters of its power plants.

The South African president added that he would appoint a dedicated minister for electricity who directly reports to him to "assume full responsibility" in overseeing all aspects of the country's electricity crisis response," said the Financial Times.