Ramaphosa’s state of disaster

South Africa’s energy crisis is expected to be top of the agenda for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State Of The Nation Address (SONA) on 9 February.

The SONA aims to inform the public about the government’s planned priorities for the year ahead, but with South Africa entering day 32 of load shedding in 2023, the power crisis is dominating headlines and government talking points.

Last year’s address by the president was also very focused on the worsening energy situation.

At the time, Ramaphosa announced a slew of interventions aimed at improving the situation, including raising the cap for energy self-generation without a licence to 100MW. This cap was later removed entirely when the country hit stage 6 load shedding for an extended period in June.

The removal of the cap was only implemented when the regulation change was gazetted in December 2022.

Since the last SONA, the hopes of a stable energy supply have crumbled further, with load shedding only intensifying, costing businesses millions, crippling industries, and impacting everyday life for all South Africans.

On Tuesday, Eskom announced that it would move to stage 5 load shedding, which would be pushed further to stage 6. The company said six generating units had suffered severe breakdowns – all within 24 hours. The country has been in a state of near-permanent load shedding since September 2022.

Since the start of the year, Ramaphosa has not been able to escape the energy crisis. He was forced to cancel a trip to Davos, and has been in high-level emergency meetings with other officials, businesses, political parties and ANC colleagues for weeks.

The latest meeting – an ANC strategy meeting held on 30 January – revealed that the governing party has now aligned itself with the idea of declaring Eskom’s continual blackouts and outright failure a national state of disaster.

According to Ramaphosa, work is already underway within the government to establish whether the legal requirements of a national state of disaster are met and what specific actions the government could be empowered to undertake.

If a state of disaster were to be declared, spending and implementing certain regulations would be fast-tracked.

“A national state of disaster will enable us to have the instruments necessary to fully implement the challenges that our nation faces,” said the president.

The party is also scurrying to try and find short-term solutions for the many millions affected by the crisis, with ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula saying that, in the coming weeks, Ramaphosa will also announce an emergency package to assist with the blackouts.

Both of these measures are expected to be expanded on at next week’s SONA.

Price hikes

As Ramaphosa contends with the load shedding crisis, another crisis looms. Energy regulator Nersa in January approved an 18.65% hike in electricity prices from April 2023. The decision was met with widespread outrage from end-users.

Not only are cash-strapped South Africans barely getting any power from Eskom, but they are also now expected to pay more for the little power they do get. All this while inflation remains high, interest rates get hiked, and the cost of living climbs ever higher.

Once again, citizens, businesses and political parties turn their attention to Ramaphosa for a solution.

Writing in his letter to the public this week, the president said that he had proposed to Nersa that the price hike be extended over a longer period of time to minimise its effects; however, the independence of the body needed to be complied with.

However, he affirmed some mitigation strategies to alleviate the effects of the energy crisis, including:

• Assisting households and small businesses in installing solar power and energy-saving devices;
• Supporting households with rechargeable lights;
• Working with learners to catch up where load shedding interrupts lessons.

Ramaphosa noted that the current free basic electricity allowance granted to people in dire financial stress would continue. However, pressure is mounting for the president to address the cost of living crisis – with society already mobilising in frustration.

After a march on Luthulu House last week by the DA, the EFF is now planning its own march – threatening a ‘national shutdown’ in response to the current state of the nation.

Solar

One of the more positive moves expected to be addressed by the president next week is a renewed push for solar in the country.

Moves toward household solar and even mass private energy production are seemingly rising to the forefront of governments’ agenda after years of being overlooked.

Ramaphosa said in January that a new source of generation capacity could be rooftop solar panels on houses and businesses in South Africa.

He said that the government is now working on creating a pricing structure that would allow people to sell surplus electricity from rooftop solar panels back into the national grid – in hopes of decreasing the frequency and intensity of load shedding.

“To incentivise greater uptake of rooftop solar, Eskom will develop rules and a pricing structure – known as a feed-in tariff – for all commercial and residential installations on its network,” said the president.

Read: Load shedding pushed to stage 6 – here’s the new schedule