Municipalities were the major beneficiaries of the state of disaster on electricity, helping with ensuring the drilling of boreholes, buying water tankers for hospitals and schools and servicing waste treatment plants.
These interventions, according to cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) minister Thembi Nkadimeng, couldn’t have happened if the state of disaster wasn’t in place at the height of power blackouts.
Yesterday, Nkadimeng announced the termination of the National State of Disaster on electricity, barely two months after it was introduced to manage rolling blackouts, citing the appointment of electricity minister as enabler of improvement.
The decision came after a court challenge by Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) and trade union Solidarity seeking the move to be set aside to promote transparency and prevent graft.
Nkadimeng said the declaration of the state of disaster had an impact on health, social services and many others besides Eskom power supply areas.
“What happens on a day-to-day basis when power trips is that it has a potential to damage infrastructure, so by applying the disaster management you unlock quite a lot of things like tankers into schools by municipalities to supply water and to hospitals for supply of water to patients, drilling of boreholes without necessarily reviewing the budget for the supply to patients,” she said.
“If you look at it that way, it will then mean if there is a trip-up of infrastructure now it might take three months to repair, so this has assisted.” Even Eskom, in terms of isolation of points where power may not necessarily be removed particularly at hospitals and care centres ... that was the great deal of what the state of disaster assisted in,” Nkadimeng said.
The government’s U-turn on the declaration of disaster came on the back of another climb-down by finance minister Enoch Godongwana, who also had to withdraw exemption granted to Eskom from disclosing its irregular expenditure amid public pressure. He said after consultation with Auditor-General (AG), the exemption would be re-gazetted, taking into account AG’s considerations.
“We have withdrawn the gazette temporarily so that the framing of the gazette is appropriate to ensure mismanagement and corruption are prevented,” he said.
On February 9, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the state of disaster would be declared as part of government’s measures to turn around the energy crisis.
Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said the termination would not disrupt Eskom’s ability to purchase parts in response to breakdowns at power stations. He said other instruments available such as provisions for emergency procurement in the public finance management act (PFMA) would be used.
“The provisions exist, so you don’t need the Disaster Management Act. You’re going to act within this framework, and the question that is being asked is whether the removal of the state of disaster is going to undermine the agility, pace and responsiveness of procurement. The answer is an emphatic no.
“Those provisions from a procurement point of view are made possible in the PFMA and therefore, termination of the state of disaster has no impact on that,” Ramokgopa said.
The termination of the state of disaster was met with suspicion that the government was acting in fear of being found wanting in the courts.
But Cogta deputy minister Parks Tau said having reviewed the progress that had been made in a number of areas, it was determined that government did not need extraordinary measures from a procurement point of view.
He said government saw no point in defending the matter in court after deciding there was no need for the state of disaster anymore. “We’ve determined that, in fact, the mitigation measures currently in place are able to reduce the levels of load shedding we’re experiencing,” Tau said.
“Of course, it doesn’t mean that we don’t have a problem. The outages continue, so, you still experience load shedding, and therefore you need to deal with load shedding.”
Outa said yesterday that the withdrawal of declaration of the state of disaster was a big win for civil society. “Today government has backtracked on two major decisions which had infuriated those who want transparency and good governance. This is a welcome indication of government finally acknowledging and listening to the public,” said Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage.
Government bows to pressure on state of disaster
Cogta minister insists measures were necessary
Image: Freddy Mavunda
Municipalities were the major beneficiaries of the state of disaster on electricity, helping with ensuring the drilling of boreholes, buying water tankers for hospitals and schools and servicing waste treatment plants.
These interventions, according to cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) minister Thembi Nkadimeng, couldn’t have happened if the state of disaster wasn’t in place at the height of power blackouts.
Yesterday, Nkadimeng announced the termination of the National State of Disaster on electricity, barely two months after it was introduced to manage rolling blackouts, citing the appointment of electricity minister as enabler of improvement.
The decision came after a court challenge by Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) and trade union Solidarity seeking the move to be set aside to promote transparency and prevent graft.
Nkadimeng said the declaration of the state of disaster had an impact on health, social services and many others besides Eskom power supply areas.
“What happens on a day-to-day basis when power trips is that it has a potential to damage infrastructure, so by applying the disaster management you unlock quite a lot of things like tankers into schools by municipalities to supply water and to hospitals for supply of water to patients, drilling of boreholes without necessarily reviewing the budget for the supply to patients,” she said.
“If you look at it that way, it will then mean if there is a trip-up of infrastructure now it might take three months to repair, so this has assisted.” Even Eskom, in terms of isolation of points where power may not necessarily be removed particularly at hospitals and care centres ... that was the great deal of what the state of disaster assisted in,” Nkadimeng said.
The government’s U-turn on the declaration of disaster came on the back of another climb-down by finance minister Enoch Godongwana, who also had to withdraw exemption granted to Eskom from disclosing its irregular expenditure amid public pressure. He said after consultation with Auditor-General (AG), the exemption would be re-gazetted, taking into account AG’s considerations.
“We have withdrawn the gazette temporarily so that the framing of the gazette is appropriate to ensure mismanagement and corruption are prevented,” he said.
On February 9, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the state of disaster would be declared as part of government’s measures to turn around the energy crisis.
Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said the termination would not disrupt Eskom’s ability to purchase parts in response to breakdowns at power stations. He said other instruments available such as provisions for emergency procurement in the public finance management act (PFMA) would be used.
“The provisions exist, so you don’t need the Disaster Management Act. You’re going to act within this framework, and the question that is being asked is whether the removal of the state of disaster is going to undermine the agility, pace and responsiveness of procurement. The answer is an emphatic no.
“Those provisions from a procurement point of view are made possible in the PFMA and therefore, termination of the state of disaster has no impact on that,” Ramokgopa said.
The termination of the state of disaster was met with suspicion that the government was acting in fear of being found wanting in the courts.
But Cogta deputy minister Parks Tau said having reviewed the progress that had been made in a number of areas, it was determined that government did not need extraordinary measures from a procurement point of view.
He said government saw no point in defending the matter in court after deciding there was no need for the state of disaster anymore. “We’ve determined that, in fact, the mitigation measures currently in place are able to reduce the levels of load shedding we’re experiencing,” Tau said.
“Of course, it doesn’t mean that we don’t have a problem. The outages continue, so, you still experience load shedding, and therefore you need to deal with load shedding.”
Outa said yesterday that the withdrawal of declaration of the state of disaster was a big win for civil society. “Today government has backtracked on two major decisions which had infuriated those who want transparency and good governance. This is a welcome indication of government finally acknowledging and listening to the public,” said Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage.
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