By SHOPOLA ARTHUR
DURING the State of the Nations Address (SONA) on Thursday, February 9 President Ramaphosa announced his plans to deal with the Eskom crisis. South African need no reminder about the failures of the country’s power utility to keep the lights on. A lot has been lost already due to unreliable electricity provision. This includes, but is not limited to, business closures which resulted in massive job retrenchments across industries. Part of his many questionable plans is the creation of the ‘electricity minister’ who will be situated in the Presidency. Since this announcement justifications have emerged regarding the role of this minister.
According to him, the electricity minister will manage Eskom issues including formulation and implementation of energy policy and report directly to president, which means that energy is no longer exclusive responsibility of the minister of energy. We are told that the energy minister will focus on other issues like the ‘a just transition from coal to non-renewables’.
Fikile Mbalula (the ANC SG) and Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungabele and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe characterised the ‘electricity ministerial post’ as a project management approach by government, where the electricity minister will serve as project manager responsible for electricity. Then what is a project manager? A project manager is someone with absolute powers over project implementation, of course guided by certain policy and regulatory prescripts. The
CEO of Eskom in this regard makes a perfect project manager than a person in the stature of a minister. The above individuals, including president Ramaphosa, should know better that a minister is a political head of an organ of state whose responsibility is to oversee the administration. Is this a gimmick? In my view, the creation of this ministry which is at odd with the governments’ long-term plan to deal with the bloated public sector wage bill is indicative of the President’s belief on institutional fundamentalism.
Despite this decision being completely against the ANC NEC Lekgotla resolve to make energy management an exclusionary function of the energy ministry, millions of rands will be needed to fund the new minister of electricity. Regrettably, the President’s tendencies of wanting to manage crisis from the institutional fundamentalist style has proved ineffectiveness previously. He has since installed countless boards and ministerial posts in the Presidency, not to mention the national
Coronavirus Command Council which was constituted parallelly by the same Cabinet ministers, the minister of women and youth, and portions of state security which President thought will function effectively when placed in the Presidency.
But we also cannot exclude the President’s inertia to deal with his own ministers. To me, the proposed ministerial post is a calculated political move to possibly avoid the mounting public calls for Pravin Gordan who is heading Department of Public Enterprises and the energy minister Mr Mantashe to be removed in those portfolios.
It is open secret that the energy crisis at Eskom has caused a rift between these two, and the President for some reasons, has demonstrated inertia to solve their issues.
To divert the public’s attention from the ensuing inter-ministerial conflict between the duo, the President intends to solve a ‘crisis with another crisis’ by creating the ‘liability’ portfolio called electricity ministry. Where will the budget come from to fund this post, and what will it mean to the already bloated cabinet structure?
For an ordinary voter in poverty-stricken areas who looks up to politicians to bring about the much-needed change into people’s lives, either through their influence in state machinery or into policy questions, it must be disappointing to learn that politics have led this country into ‘unimaginable’ national state of disaster, and such is continuing unabated. What the President needs to do, therefore, is to move away from institutional fundamentalism ideology and keep his cabinet shot
with competent ministers. Given the fact that 2023/2024 marks his last term as state president, he should focus on building a solid legacy. That is, appoint competent and skilled ministers who will take South Africa to the new heights without appeasing his political attachments to certain individuals. The persistence of loadshedding, and subsequent declaration of national state of disaster on Eskom crisis means that the road ahead is rocky. Decisive leadership is what South Africans want, not the gimmicks!
Arthur Shopola is an independent political analyst, attached to Department of
Public Management, Tshwane University of Technology in Polokwane
Campus, and North West University, Mahikeng Campus.
‘CRISIS CANNOT SOLVE ANOTHER CRISIS’ THE NEW MINISTER OF ELECTRICITY IS GOING TO BE A LIABILITY
