Cape Town – President Cyril Ramaphosa has denied that the appointment of a minister of electricity will cause tensions and create turf wars with ministers of energy and public enterprises.
Ramaphosa said on Thursday this position has been created in order to enable that minister to focus on load shedding and the energy crisis at Eskom.
He said while the Minister of Minerals and Energy Gwede Mantashe’s responsibility is to focus on policy, the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, was focusing on the restructuring of Eskom and other state-owned entities.
Ramaphosa said the country had been battling load shedding for a long time and a minister of electricity would come in with the intention to resolve this challenge.
But he will not step onto the toes of his other colleagues handling Eskom and energy matters.
“Some have suggested that the appointment of the minister will cause confusion and fragmentation, and that it might also result in turf wars among the ministers who deal with energy and Eskom. This is not the case.
“The minister of electricity will be focused day in and day out only on addressing the load-shedding crisis, working together with the management of Eskom and the board. The minister will be leading the National Energy Crisis Committee and interacting with all other departments in the spirit of co-operative governance.
“The minister of mineral resources and energy deals with matters of energy policy, as well as mineral resources. Beyond the energy crisis that we face, the restructuring of government will be effected to enable entities that fall under various departments to be properly located in those departments,” said Ramaphosa.
He said on the other hand, the minister of public enterprises would continue with the restructuring of Eskom and other SOEs.
He said he fully agreed with Mantashe, who told Parliament during the debate on Tuesday, South Africa did not have the luxury of time in resolving the energy crisis.
Mantashe had said the country cannot wait for 24 months to solve load shedding.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
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