Business Report writes that business and other leaders have been left divided over the proposal by the governing ANC that the government should declare a national state of disaster in a bid to end the ongoing energy crisis.

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday said there was clear direction from the recent ANC national executive committee lekgotla that the government must resolve the immediate task of load shedding within a much shorter time-frame than projected. A declaration under the Disaster Management Act of 2002 would allow the national executive to direct and co-ordinate the activities of all government agencies and also allocate government resources as necessary to respond to the crisis. Andrew Bahlmann of Deal Leaders International pointed out on Tuesday that whether or not a declaration would be effective depended almost entirely on whom government placed in charge of managing the disaster, and it should not be somebody involved in politics. “Talk of a state of disaster is an admission that the government has thoroughly mismanaged Eskom. It signifies complete desperation and panic ahead of a general election – but asking the people who got us into this mess to now resolve it is wishful thinking,” Bahlmann said. Trade union Solidarity also expressed fierce criticism against the idea of declaring a state of disaster, saying that this would do more harm than good. Head of the Solidarity Research Institute Connie Mulder said it was rather the government’s inability to use their current power that led to the crisis, and a state of disaster would once again open the door to large-scale corruption and fraud. “The ANC government declaring a state of disaster to deal with load shedding is like trying to put out a fire with petrol,” Mulder said. However, Old Mutual Wealth investment strategist Izak Odendaal had the following view: “It should not have come to this, but it does at least signal that the government is serious about the issue, after years of broken promises.”

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Siphelele Dludla at Business Report
• See too, A national state of disaster over load shedding? The public's not so sure, at EWN
• Read Solidarity’s press statement on this matter at Solidarity News

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