Cape Town - Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe has defended the appointment of the Minister of Electricity, saying there was no time to resolve the energy crisis and the country cannot wait for 24 months.
Mantashe said the position of minister of electricity was not being downgraded when it was referred to as project management.
He said this was done because there were clear time-frames and milestones that would have to be achieved.
In fact, this was a very important position.
When President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation he said the problem of load shedding can be solved, said Mantashe.
One of the measures he has taken to address it was the declaration of the state of disaster to remove bottlenecks and other obstacles, he added.
He said that the second aspect was to appoint the minister of electricity.
“We characterised it and defined it as a project management approach in dealing with the crisis. Some people in the media say when we characterise it as a project management approach we are reducing this Ministry and its authority. I think something called school will help them understand project management as not being reductionist. It is emphasising urgency of execution and delivery of the project on time.
“When you talk project management there will be clear time-frames, the beginning and the end of the project. There will be clear milestones. Therefore, this is not reductionist. It is communicating a sense of urgency and the desire to resolve this because we don’t have time to wait for 24 months to resolve load shedding,” said Mantashe.
Mantashe said that is how serious Ramaphosa was in dealing with load shedding.
He warned other parties to avoid playing to the gallery on this issue.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
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