Political parties have weighed in on the ruling ANC’s plan to declare South Africa’s rolling blackouts a National State of Disaster.  

The country was plunged into Stage 5 load shedding at noon on Tuesday after six generating units went down overnight and Eskom’s available fleet of power stations teetered.  

Stage 6 blackouts resumed from 9pm on Tuesday to 5am on Wednesday morning. Thereafter, Stage 5 will continue until further notice. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Rolling blackouts — here are your options and what they are likely to cost you” 

Eskom’s slow-burn is taking the country down with it, and its rolling blackouts are affecting businesses, and disrupting water supply in some areas, leaving residents without access to water for days on end. 

The latest escalation of power cuts comes as households, businesses and municipalities scramble to reduce their reliance on Eskom by installing generators, bringing independent power producers on to the grid or, recently, buying electricity from customers with rooftop solar installations.  

Closing the ANC’s four-day lekgotla at Esselenpark in Ekurhuleni over the weekend, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the issue of potentially declaring the power crisis a National State of Disaster was receiving urgent consideration. 

In a hybrid briefing at Luthuli House on Tuesday on the outcomes of the lekgotla, the ANC’s secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, expanded on the party’s plans to address the ongoing energy crisis.  

According to Mbalula, the National Executive Committee (NEC) lekgotla had resolved that the plans of the National Energy Crisis Committee would be accelerated to end rolling blackouts “by the end of the year”.

“In meeting this objective, the NEC agreed that all measures should be taken to protect, rebuild and save Eskom. The NEC lekgotla, in line with the presentation of [Finance Minister] Enoch Godongwana, noted that this will require a reprioritisation of the already pressured national Budget,” he said. 

Declaring rolling blackouts a National State of Disaster would help the government to “move with speed” in the procurement and allocation of resources, said Mbalula.  

Visit Daily Maverick’s home page for more news, analysis and investigations

“The target of getting this done and dusted by the end of the year can even move faster. If we’ve got all hands on deck, we can address issues of procurement faster and mobilise resources where they are needed for interventions, particularly when it comes to maintenance.”  

Calls for the crisis to be declared a National State of Disaster have been made by a number of roleplayers, including trade unions, community-based organisations and traditional leaders, Daily Maverick’s Nonkululeko Njilo reported.  

In a statement on Tuesday, the DA took responsibility for nudging the ANC into declaring the rolling blackouts a State of Disaster but maintained any declaration must be subject to strict scrutiny by Parliament.  

“Today, the ANC was finally left with no choice but to accede to the DA’s long-time demand to declare Eskom an ANC-made disaster zone,” said the DA’s shadow minister of mineral resources and energy, Kevin Mileham.  

He said that the party reiterated its position that any declaration of a State of Disaster must be strictly ring-fenced around Eskom and the electricity sector. In addition to this, such a declaration “must be subject to complete and transparent parliamentary oversight”.  

“Properly implemented, a 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,” said Mileham. 

The Freedom Front Plus has backed calls for a National State of Disaster to be declared, but concurs with the DA that it must be subject to strict and transparent parliamentary oversight.  

“The possible State of Disaster, which President Ramaphosa announced as a solution to the electricity crisis, must be very clearly defined.  

“The same abuse of power, like with the Covid-19 State of Disaster, must not repeat itself,” said party leader Pieter Groenewald in a statement.  

Groenewald added that Ramaphosa must also indicate how long the proposed National State of Disaster will last.  

Meanwhile, the EFF in a statement on Tuesday, dismissed the government’s consideration of a National State of Disaster, saying the move was not a silver bullet: “It will bring no permanent solutions to the energy challenges we are facing, and must be rejected with the contempt it deserves. 

“The EFF rejects the meaningless calls by Cyril Ramaphosa for a National State of Disaster to be declared on the prevailing crisis of rolling electricity blackouts… 

“The Covid-19 pandemic was an instructive lesson on the ability of the ANC government to utilise tragedy and disaster as means to massively loot state resources,” said EFF national spokesperson Sinawo Thambo. 

EFF Rejects Calls For A National State Of Disaster On The Ongoing Energy Crisis pic.twitter.com/qvoku4JIqG

— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) January 31, 2023

The party has said it will embark on a national shutdown on 20 March in response to the rolling blackouts and to demand Ramaphosa’s resignation from office. 

The approval by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) earlier this month to increase the Eskom tariff by 18.65% in 2023, with a 12.74% hike in 2024, first prompted the threat of a national shutdown. It was endorsed by members of the public, civil society organisations and political parties, including the African Transformation Movement (ATM), Daily Maverick’s Michelle Banda reported.  

A date and venue for the shutdown have not been confirmed.  

At the hybrid media briefing at Luthuli House on Tuesday, Mbalula berated the EFF, saying: “Yes, people have got the right to protest … but to call for people to shut down… it will cripple the economy.” DM