News24 report that discussions between legal teams from the Presidency, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) and the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) are the last stumbling block before President Cyril Ramaphosa proclaims powers to aid his electricity minister in his mammoth task of solving SA’s load shedding problems.

While reports have suggested that the holdup in Ramaphosa not assigning powers to Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa have been caused by Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan refusing to relinquish some of their responsibilities, the ANC has asserted that such delays were more of a legal nature. Explaining the situation on Saturday at the ANC national executive committee meeting, the party's economic transformation subcommittee chairperson Mmamoloko Kubayi said the snag was now at the level of legal teams from the Presidency, the DMRE and the DPE, which were locked in engagements. The engagements, according to Kubayi, were to iron out which legislative frameworks need to be transferred from the energy and public enterprises departments and housed under the minister of electricity, and what the legal implications of doing that would be. She said such far-reaching decisions were being taken with the understanding that Ramokgopa’s role was temporary and would come to an end once the load shedding crisis was addressed, meaning that reinstating those powers to the two departments also needed to be factored in. Kubayi added that Ramaphosa also wanted Ramokgopa to assess for himself what powers he would need to address the energy crisis, and give input.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Juniour Khumalo at News24 (subscriber access only)
• Read too, Ramokgopa and Gordhan a no-show at ‘energy demand’ indaba, at Moneyweb

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page