The Office of the State Attorney says that it has been instructed by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs that the government has decided to terminate the declaration of a state of disaster over the Eskom crisis in the country.
In response to court action brought against the state for the declaration, the State Attorney invited the litigants to withdraw their cases, given that this is the direction being taken.
“We are instructed that the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, in consultation with the relevant Cabinet members, has decided to terminate the state of disaster in accordance with section 27(5)(b) of the Disaster Management Act, 57 of 2002 and to repeal the State of Disaster Regulations promulgated in Government Gazette No. 48145, GNR 3089 on 27 February 2023,” it said.
“We are further instructed that the Head of the National Disaster Management Centre has decided to revoke the classification of the impact of the severe electricity supply constraint as a national disaster.
“The Minister of CoGTA and the Head of the National Disaster Management Centre will implement these decisions today through the publication of the relevant notices in the Government Gazette.”
The State Attorney said that given this change of affairs, the relief sought by the litigants are moot.
Legal action against the State of Disaster was launched by civil action group Outa and trade union Solidarity, among others.
Solidarity said that the withdrawal of the state of disaster less than two months after it was introduced indicates that opponents were right from the very beginning that the disaster was declared for political reasons.
Solidarity, Outa and many other critics of the move said that the state of disaster was unnecessary to deal with the energy crisis, because the government itself was behind the crisis and already had all the necessary instruments at its disposal to resove it.
Solidarity said that it was also further proof that the government didn’t have any real solutions for the problems and instead the energy crisis could only be resolved through large and small-scale price generation.
“Solidarity once again appeals to the government to please step out of the way so that the private and community sector can solve the power crisis. The government now needs to focus on removing all hindering regulations so that anyone who wants to generate and sell electricity can do so easily,” it said.
Source : BusinessTech 04/05/2023