Page 6 - AfrElec Week 11 2023

AfrElec POLICY AfrElec

Kgosientsho Ramokgopa
Electricity Minister
South Africa

President Ramaphosa appoints Electricity

Minister to deal with energy crisis

SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has government, Eskom [the state power utility]
reshuffled his cabinet, appointing a new deputy and other stakeholders, we remain committed
and a minister of electricity tasked with tackling to that plan.
a worsening power shortage in the continent’s “The primary task of the new minister will
most-developed country.. be to significantly reduce the severity and fre-
Ramaphosa picked Paul Mashatile as his quency of load shedding as a matter of urgency.
deputy to succeed David Mabuza in a widely To effectively oversee the electricity crisis
expected reshuffle, two months after a con- response, the appointed minister will have
gress at which he got approval from his African political responsibility, authority and control
National Congress (ANC) party to run for a over all critical aspects of the Energy Action
second and final term as president in a general Plan.” The primary
election in 2024. Over-reliance on ageing coal-fired power
Mabuza failed to secure re-election into the plants and rising demand have in recent years task of the new
party’s senior ranks at the December 2022 con- forced Eskom to ration electricity, in some cases
gress and resigned from his position as deputy for as long as 10 hours daily. A local daily Busi- minister will be
president in early February 2023. nessTech cited a top domestic bank, Nedbank
Ramaphosa, in a televised address to the as estimating that real gross domestic product to significantly
nation on Monday (March 6), said he had (GDP) will shrink by 0.4% in Q1 2023, “which reduce the
appointed Kgosientsho Ramokgopa as electric- means that the economy probably entered a
ity minister to serve in his office. recession in the final quarter of last year,” due to severity and
He said his government is focused on the power shortage.
addressing issues that concern South Africans As part of measures to address the crisis, the frequency of
the most -- unemployment, poverty, the rising president declared it a state of disaster in Febru-
cost of living, crime, corruption and the crip- ary. This gives his administration greater power load shedding
pling electricity shortage. to resolve the situation more rapidly. as a matter of
“We said in the state of the nation address The appointments of Ramokgopa and a new
[on February 9] that our most immediate minister to monitor government performance urgency.
task is to dramatically reduce the severity increases the size of the executive.
of load shedding in the coming months and Ramaphosa urged his team “to focus on those
ultimately end load shedding altogether,” he agreed actions that will make a meaningful dif-
said. ference now, that will enable real progress within
“Our focus is on the full and urgent imple- the next year and that will lay a foundation for a
mentation of the Energy Action Plan. As sustained recovery into the future. ™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 11 15•March•2023