Byline: Andani Matumba

Friday, 10 February 2023

President Cyril Ramaphosa left many South Africans in a state of awe as he announced his intentions to appoint the Minister of Electricity at the Presidency to resolve the loadshedding crisis currently experienced by South Africans.

This follows after President Ramaphosa declared loadshedding as a national disaster with immediate effect during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Cape Town on Thursday, 09 February 2023 and the appointment of the Minister is said to be part of Government’s intervention plans to combat loadshedding as an energy crises.

This comes across as a desperate move for the president as he had promised an energy crisis free country when he came into power in 2018.

In his speech, Ramaphosa said, “Our most immediate task is to dramatically reduce the severity of load-shedding in the coming months and ultimately end load-shedding altogether.”

Under these conditions, we cannot proceed as we usually would.

The people of South Africa want action, they want solutions and they want government to work for them.

They simply want to know when a problem like load-shedding will be brought to an end”.

Most people took to twitter expressing their disapproval and distress towards the president’s so called intervention plan.

“Ramaphosa is a pathetic liar when he took office, he said he would reduce the number of Ministers. Where will the salary of Electrity Minister come from, Ramphosa must be removed before we find ourselves with a Minister of potholes and sewers,” tweeted @AfricaisBlack.

Some political parties questioned the declaration of the national state of disaster due to the failure of only one Department.

“How do we declare the national state of disaster simply because one department is dysfunctional, is he going to declare SAA and DENEL as the national state of disaster as well,” said some of the opposition members.

Members of the ANC were also caught by surprise during the announcement and allege that the appointment of the Minister of Electricity is not the Mandate of the ruling party.

Now the big question remains, who will be the Minister of Electricity and for how is this Minister going to serve?