National state of disaster: Here are the details of how govt plans to deal with load shedding

Almost three weeks since President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster to respond to the country’s energy crisis, government has finally published the regulations related to the Disaster Management Act.

National state of disaster

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma on Monday signed the new regulations into law, and they were published in the Government Gazette.

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According to Cogta, the regulations are meant to minimise and provide relief to South Africans from the disruption of rolling blackouts on livelihoods, the economy, policing functions, national security, food security, and services such as education, health, water and security, communications and municipal services, among others.

The regulations are also expected to reduce and manage the impact of load shedding on service delivery to support lifesaving and specified infrastructure like hospitals as well as provide measures to enable the connection of new generation of electricity and to improve Eskom’s plant performance.

During the disaster period, national government is also anticipated to work in close cooperation with provincial and local governments to deal with the country’s energy crisis.

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It remains unclear how long will the national state of disaster will last, but the ANC-led government has set an ambitious target to end load shedding by December this year.

Proposed government measures to deal with load shedding

Below are some of the measures government wants to use to prevent the escalation of severe electricity supply constraints:

1. All government institutions (within national, provincial and local spheres) must adopt energy-saving measures to contain the effects of rotational power cuts and prevent the escalation of the electricity shortfall.
2. Ensure the continuous operation of health facilities, water infrastructure and other essential infrastructure and services, including by installing alternative energy sources or other measures to provide an uninterrupted power supply.
3. Release and mobilise available resources, including human resources, stores, equipment, ships, aircraft platforms, vehicles, and facilities.
4. Release their personnel for the rendering of emergency services.
5. Provide funds for the aforementioned points subject to affordability.

Essential infrastructure

According to the regulations, essential infrastructure refers to health and military health facilities, water infrastructure including treatment plants, rail and port infrastructure, food production and food storage facilities as well as critical electronic communications and broadcast infrastructure.

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Authority to issue directions

Cabinet ministers have the power to issue directions within the mandate of their departments, in consultation with the Cogta minister or any other relevant Cabinet minister, for the purposes of giving effect to the implementation of the measures to deal with load shedding.

Cabinet ministers can, in consultation, grant exemptions from load shedding or reduce the power cuts schedules to specified infrastructure and services “where technically feasible” as long as the exemptions or reductions would not result in an increased risk of higher stages of load shedding.

Cabinet ministers can also issue directions related to implementing measures to remove “impediments to the development or construction of new generation capacity”.

Minister can further facilitate the “importation of electricity by Eskom from neighbouring countries and the conclusion of contracts relating to electricity imports, on an expedited and negotiated basis” in accordance with emergency procurement procedures.

Emergency procurement

Emergency procurement procedures to help to deal with load shedding will be governed by provisions in the Public Finance Management Act, Municipal Finance Management Act, and the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act.

The Office of the Auditor General will be expected to conduct “real-time audits and report on the accounts, financial statements and financial management of all emergency procurement undertaken during the national state of disaster”.

Accounting officers are expected to take steps to ensure that anti-corruption measures are implemented during emergency procurement.

All emergency procurement must also be “published and reported to Parliament within the month of the expenditure by accounting officers and authorities, including details of such procurement and the reasons for deviating from normal procurement procedures”.

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