In a much-anticipated cabinet reshuffle that began an hour and a half later than expected, President Cyril Ramaphosa eventually unveiled fresh members of his Cabinet while he moved some around and dismissed one or two ministers.
The new Minister of Tourism, Patricia de Lille takes Lindiwe Sisulu’s post while Khumbudzo Ntshavheni’s successor as Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies is Mondli Gungubele.
Following the departure of David Mabuza a few weeks ago, Paul Mashatile was appointed as the new Deputy President. Pravin Gordhan, Gwede Mantashe, and Bheki Cele, the ministers of public services, mineral resources, and police, however, retained their positions.
After much speculation on social media, Ramaphosa named former Tshwane Executive Mayor Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, Minister in the Presidency responsible for Electricity.
While pointing out that the government’s focus is on the full and urgent implementation of the Energy Action Plan and that the government, Eskom and other stakeholders, remain committed to that plan.
Ramaphosa said in his brief speech: “I am therefore announcing the appointment of a Minister in the Presidency responsible for resolving the electricity crisis.
“The primary task of the new Minister will be to significantly reduce the severity and frequency of load shedding as a matter of urgency.
“To effectively oversee the electricity crisis response, the appointed Minister will have political responsibility, authority and control over all critical aspects of the Energy Action Plan.
“This will help to deal with the challenge of fragmentation of responsibility across various departments and Ministers which, while appropriate under normal circumstances, is not conducive to a crisis response.
“The Minister will be expected to facilitate the coordination of the numerous departments and entities involved in the crisis response, work with the Eskom leadership to turn around the performance of existing power stations, and accelerate the procurement of new generation capacity.
“To enable the Minister to do this work, I will, in terms of section 97 of the Constitution, transfer to them certain powers and functions contained in relevant legislation.
“In the State of the Nation Address, I announced that a national state of disaster had been declared to respond to the electricity crisis and its social and economic impact.
“The recently published disaster regulations empower the Minister of Electricity to issue directions to, among others, exclude critical facilities from load shedding where technically feasible; expedite various regulatory processes for energy projects; and enable Eskom to undertake critical maintenance more quickly and efficiently.
“The Minister in the Presidency for Electricity will liaise with other relevant Ministers to ensure coherence in the issuing of other directions during the national state of disaster.
“The Minister in the Presidency for Electricity will remain in office only for as long as it is necessary to resolve the electricity crisis”.