ESKOM : Good news! State of Disaster over ESKOM scrapped! BUT …. What about Loadshedding?
The State of disaster declared over ESKOM during the month of February by the South African government has been scrapped with immediate effect . BUT! Oops! Power cuts (“loadshedding”) will still remain a reality, well for now.
The national state of disaster over ESKOM was declared as a measure to strategically regulate the country’s severe electricity supply issues.
This past week, the government stated that it has scrapped the declaration of a ‘national state of distaster’ effectively and immediately, which has served it’s initial purpose to regulate and minimize the critical levels of loadshedding on the country’s economy especially the vulnerable sectors such as health and small businesses.
It is a no-brainer , that loadshedding has become a part of the ordinary South African’s daily life, and the repercussions thereof has been the shutting down of businesses,subsequently leading to loss of jobs and an increase in unemployment which further inhibits the economic growth of RSA. Such a prevailing status quo, moved the government to make use of their legislative power and thus declare a national state of disaster over ESKOM, which allowed them to eradicate bureaucratic processes and rather fasttrack procedures required to mitigate the level of loadshedding , with has to do with procurement and the prevention of escalation of supply constraints in a bid to enhance the generation and supply of electricity.
One of the outcomes of such a declaration was the establishment of a new ministry within the President’s cabinet called ‘Ministry of electricity ‘ and announcement of Mr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa,as the minister.Good news? The national state of disaster over ESKOM has indeed been repealed. Bad news? Loadshedding is set to proceed.
Based on ESKOM’s forecast, the demand will exceed the available generating capacity for the next 52 weeks, which will result in a weekly shortfall of a minimum of 2 000 MW. Which means that stage 2 & 3 loadshedding will be a constant reality for the next 52 weeks.
