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Mbalula refutes claims Ramaphosa hasn’t delivered on previous promises
Mbalula says electricity minister will 'eat at Eskom, sleep at Eskom, wake up at Eskom and brief the country at Eskom.'
ANC secretary General, Fikile Mbalula briefs media at Luthuli House in Johannesburg on 31 January 2023. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
The African National Congress (ANC) says President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) has reflected on government’s failures while also planning to tackle the challenges the country faces.
Ramaphosa on Thursday announced the national state of disaster would be implemented with immediate effect to tackle the country’s energy crisis and load shedding.
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has since gazetted the declaration of the state of disaster.
Ramaphosa’s speech not slogans
During a media briefing on Friday, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the ANC was of the view Ramaphosa’s speech was the “true state of the nation”.
“It was not philosophy. It was not slogans. It was programme it terms of what needs to be done. It was partly also a reflection on some of the things that the president said he would do in his government in the past year and elaborating substantially in the statement about what work has been done,” he said.
“Our government has received criticism that the president makes an announcement year-in-year-out and there’s no reflection on what has been done.
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“[But] if you look at the statement, there is a litany of things that were announced and concrete reporting back to the nation on what has been done and the difficulties that government has faced which among others in this crisis.”
The ANC, Mbalula said, has welcomed Ramaphosa’s announcement to establish a Ministry of Electricity in the Presidency as well as the declaration of a national state of disaster.
“We believe that this is a bold step,” he continued.
“We announced at the end of our lekgotla that for us to come close to what is happening in our country, [we need] to deal with the crisis. It is a crisis and we are not in denial about that.”
Minister of electricity
The minister further disputed the suggestion by the Democratic Alliance (DA) claiming the Electricity Ministry would cost taxpayers R37.2 million per year.
“I have seen that there’s a lot of excitement politically on the minister of electricity, Mr Project Manager, who will deal with the electricity interventions.
“[It started some] discourse and others were doing jokes about it… that the minister of electricity is already at work. Of course, the DA is going overboard and distorting the figures saying this is what the minister will cost and so on,” he said.
According to the DA’s calculations based on the Ministerial Handbook, the salary of the minister would cost R2.4 million per year, and the deputy minister’s salary at a R2 million per year.
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But Mbalula says there will be no deputy minister.
“[There will only be a] minister of electricity focusing on resolving the electricity crisis as part of the intervention. The minister, over and above, will work in the realm of disaster management and everything else as a package.”
He added that the new minister is going to continuously brief government on the progress made “weekly or monthly”.
“This minister will be given a mandate and it will be further refined so it’s not handicapped by intolerant and territorial bullies in the system. The minister will eat at Eskom, sleep at Eskom, wake up at Eskom and brief the country at Eskom. So this must not be conflated with Mondli [Gungubele] and what he is mandated to do.”
This comment comes after speculation that Gungubele would be appointed to the position.
Reconfiguration of government
On the restructuring of government, Mbalula said this would happen over time.
The ANC, at its national elective conference, resolved that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as Eskom South African Airways (SAA) and Transnet would be moved to their relevant government departments.
“Some of it will be implemented and some will not and will be implemented in the long-term as reconfiguration of government takes time,” he said.
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“We are discussing, among others, what will happen the department in the long run, not now. A lot of departments are going to be reconfigured.
“The president and his team are working on that. We want Eskom to go where it belongs, we want SAA to go where it belongs and we want the trains and transport issues to go where they belong.”
State of disaster
Mbaula also commented on government’s decision to implement the state of disaster.
Some have expressed concern that the declaration will result in widespread looting and corruption.
“Individuals within the framework of the disaster, particularly with Covid-19, have acted in a corrupt manner which was arrested. We had to deal with this corruption and the media don’t talk about how much money was recovered that was stolen by people [via] PPEs.
“Some of the people are facing the wrath of the law before the courts. Political parties do their job by raising their concerns, but at the end of the day we have got a responsibility to govern and to take the country out of the crisis that we are in.
“We are faced with a monumental crisis which can be categorised as a existential crisis for this country in terms of business and also South Africa as a brand.”
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