South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that he will appoint a Minister of Electricity, whose responsibility will be to tackle the country’s energy crisis.
South Africans can now go for nearly half a day without electricity supply as the country’s power utility Eskom, is struggling to balance demand and supply.
Ramaphosa, in his State of the Nation address today, declared the electricity crisis as a state of disaster and said a minister of will be appointed to deal with it. He said:
The electricity crisis remains an existential crisis to our economy and society.
A minister of electricity in the Presidency will be appointed to focus solely on the energy crisis and make sure the energy plan is implemented.
The minister of electricity will focus on the crisis day and night.
The ANC leader also revealed that plans are in place for hospitals and water treatment plans to be exempted from loadshedding.