BL Premium reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa insisted on Thursday that the appointment of a minister of electricity with a specific mandate to deal with load-shedding was the best way to tackle the power crisis. He was replying in parliament to the debate on the state of the nation address he delivered last week.

Opposition parties were scathing of the announcement of a minister of electricity and a state of disaster, saying it would lead to confusion, fragmentation and turf wars involving the other ministers with oversight over Eskom, namely mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe and public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan. Ramaphosa said: “This new minister will assume full responsibility for overseeing all aspects of the electricity crisis response… This appointment will ensure that there is a minister who is ultimately responsible for resolving load-shedding and who is able to work with all fellow cabinet ministers, departments and entities to do so.” He said the minister of electricity would be focused “day in and day out” only on addressing the load-shedding crisis, working together with the management of Eskom and the board. Ramaphosa explained that Mantashe’s responsibility was for energy policy as well as mineral resources, while Gordhan would deal with the restructuring of Eskom and other state-owned enterprises.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Linda Ensor at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)

Read too, Minister of Electricity’s ‘undivided attention’ to be on loadshedding crisis, at Mining Weekly

En ook, Ramaphosa verdedig nuwe minister, ramptoestand, by Maroela Media

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