Parliament must have oversight to stop looting: Parties react to electricity state of disaster plan

A declaration of a state of disaster should be strictly ring-fenced around Eskom and the electricity sector and be subjected to complete and transparent parliamentary oversight, the DA says.

This comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday gave the strongest indication yet that the government is likely to declare a state of disaster on South Africa's energy crisis. Speaking at the end of the ANC’s national executive committee lekgotla, Ramaphosa said work was under way to establish legal requirements for such a notice.

DA MP Kevin Mileham said that with more than a decade of loadshedding having wiped out the economy, the reality that the ruling party has turned the country's electricity system into an “unmitigated disaster appears to finally be sinking in”.

Mileham said a “properly implemented, ring-fenced and transparently-managed state of disaster can enable the government to bypass its own self-imposed obstacles, bottlenecks and cost inflation in the form of unworkable labour legislation, localisation requirements and BEE”.

However, he said, “full and complete transparency and parliamentary oversight will be required every step of the way to prevent a repeat of the PPE looting frenzy during the Covid-19 state of disaster”.

Mileham added that the DA is going to write to the speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, requesting her to ensure this matter is urgently tabled in parliament.

Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Groenewald said that the looming state of disaster ought to be defined to avoid the “same abuse of power with Covid-19, which must not repeat itself”.

“States of disaster are not uncommon. Last year in KwaZulu-Natal, for example, a state of disaster was announced with the specific aim of alleviating the effects of the floods, which caused severe damage,” he said.

Groenewald said the FF Plus wanted exact reasons and rules that would apply to be spelt out, with parliamentary oversight exercised and an ad hoc committee established to monitor the process. He said it was important to prevent corruption with funds that become easily accessible through special measures, such as during the Covid-19 state of disaster.

ActionSA national spokesperson Lerato Ngobeni said while the party was relieved to see that the ANC is finally “taking the crisis seriously”, it remained suspicious of the ruling party's ability to use this extreme measure for the improvement of the situation.

“As was proven by the multiple corruption scandals during the pandemic, the ANC is likely to use the powers under the disaster management act for corrupt purposes,” she said.

ActionSA echoed sentiments to call on the ruling party to go against its instincts and use this emergency measure to address the situation rather than enrich themselves.

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