South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared a state of disaster with immediate effect in order to address the country’s severe electricity crisis, which includes daily power outages.
In his State of the Nation address on Thursday night, Ramaphosa stated that the declaration will allow his government to exempt essential services such as hospitals and water treatment plants from power outages and to purchase additional power from neighboring countries on an emergency basis.
According to Reuters, it will also allow the government to assist businesses in dealing with the effects of widespread power outages, such as increasing the availability of diesel generators and solar panels.
“Extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures. The energy crisis is an existential threat to our economy and social fabric,” he said
The declaration of a state of disaster comes as rolling power cuts of up to eight hours per day are hitting homes, factories and businesses across the nation of 60 million.
The state of disaster is an emergency measure previously implemented to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the deadly floods that killed more than 400 people last year.
The country’s power utility Eskom is unable to produce adequate power due to frequent breakdowns at its ageing coal-fired power stations and years of corruption.
Ramaphosa also announced that he will appoint a minister of electricity, whose sole focus would be to deal with the electricity crisis.
Ramaphosa’s speech was delayed by 45 minutes after disruptions by members of parliament from the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters opposition party, who were eventually removed from the sitting by security personnel.
He is expected to reshuffle his cabinet following the resignation of Deputy President David Mabuza and changes in the leadership of the ruling African National Congress party.
Ramaphosa is expected to appoint newly elected ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile to replace Mabuza.