The government of South Africa said on Wednesday that the “state of disaster” declared in February had been removed. it was declared to address a severe energy shortage
In order to respond to the catastrophe, the government was given increased emergency powers. including the authority to perform emergency procurement with fewer obstacles and less oversight.
Thembi Nkadimeng, minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), said in a statement that the government would now work via its Energy Crisis Committee to mitigate the consequences of power outages by implementing existing legislation and creating contingency plans.
According to CoGTA, newly appointed electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has visited Eskom’s power plants and spoken with government officials and Eskom to find a solution to the nation’s energy woes.
In light of these developments, the government has decided to repeal the disaster law, according to the statement.
After declaring a state of emergency owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, a number of commentators questioned the government’s ability to immediately increase the power supply.
Similarly, regulations enacted to cope with a catastrophe like the power loss were challenged in court.
OUTA, a non-profit organization that combats government corruption and tax evasion, said that the state was removing the national state of disaster in response to a court lawsuit that questioned its rationale.
According to OUTA, the crisis could have been managed with the use of existing laws, and the crisis regulations would have permitted corruption.
On February 9, President Cyril Ramaphosa invoked disaster legislation to confront the severe electricity crisis, which includes daily rolling power outages by Eskom.
Due to Eskom’s planned outages, the majority of households and businesses have been without power for up to ten hours every day this year.
Eskom won’t comment on the progress of the catastrophe withdrawal until it starts working with the government.
