TimesLive reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa has hinted to parliament what minister of electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa’s responsibilities will be, but procurement will not be one of them.
Ramokgopa was appointed minister early last month, but Ramaphosa has yet to promulgate a gazette setting out his powers. On Thursday, Ramaphosa was asked to outline Ramokgopa’s strategy to shield SA from stage 7 or 8 load-shedding this winter. Ramaphosa said Ramokgopa would focus on energy generation while public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan would ensure that there was a transmission company and mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe would keep an eye on policy and procurement. Finalisation of all the mandate matters that the minister of electricity would have to attend to was due to be announced “very shortly”, Ramaphosa stated. He went on to indicate: “What we have been doing is to look at the tasks that relate to generation in the Electricity Regulation Act and those tasks that need to be executed by the minister of electricity. They include matters of generation and the identification of the type of energy source we need. Thereafter, co-operating with the minister of minerals and resources and energy for the procurement process. Once it has been procured, the minister of electricity will ensure that it is implemented.” Ramokgopa would also be responsible for driving the various actions being co-ordinated by the National Energy Crisis Committee (Necom) to end load-shedding as a matter of urgency.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Amanda Khoza at TimesLive
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