Following a public outcry and outrage over Finance Minister Enoch Godongwane’s gazette exemption Eskom from the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), the government today issued a statement saying it has withdrawn the gazette and also terminated the National State of Disaster (NSD) over the energy crisis declared earlier this year.
The gazette exempting Eskom from disclosing any of its irregular expenditure and fruitless and wasteful expenditure that occurred during the financial years 2022/3/4/5 in the annual report, was published on 31 March and this caused a huge public row with political parties and the Black Business Council weighing in on the matter.
Today the Finance Ministry announced that it was withdrawing the gazette because of some technical or legal errors with its publication.
In a statement the Black Business Council said it welcomes Godongwane’s withdrawal of the Eskom exemption from disclosing any of its irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure for the financial years 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.
“The Minister should rather focus on ensuring that Eskom and other SOEs don’t incur irregular expenditure and fruitless and wasteful expenditure in the first place by implementing effective consequence management instead of abusing exemption provisions.
“The BBC is glad that the Minister finally realised that openness, accountability, disclosures and transparency are the cornerstone of a constitutional democracy and these will create certainty with investors and the general public”.
Then again today the government announced the termination of the NSD declared by the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs on 9 February 2023.
In a statement, the government said the State of Disaster was a necessary response to the impact of critical levels of load shedding on the economy and vulnerable sectors such as health and small businesses.
Following the declaration of the NSD in February, the government adopted wide-ranging regulations which set out the responsibilities of the different organs of the state to mitigate the impact of severe load shedding, prevent the escalation of electricity supply constraints, and avert a national emergency, read the statement.
“These regulations and the underlying actions were put in place in support of the Energy Action Plan. This was to support an effective and integrated response across all spheres of government.
“The NSD enabled the government to enhance interventions by the National Energy Crisis Committee in terms of the Energy Action Plan.
The interventions in the Energy Action Plan aim to:
• Fix Eskom and improve the availability of existing supply.
• Enable and accelerate private investment in generation capacity.
• Accelerate procurement of new capacity from renewables, gas and battery storage • Unleash businesses and households to invest in rooftop solar.
• Fundamentally transform the electricity sector to achieve long-term energy security.
“A significant enabler of the improvement in the supply of electricity has been the appointment by President Cyril Ramaphosa of Dr Kgosientso Ramokgopa as Minister of Electricity.
“The Minister has in recent weeks undertaken oversight visits to power stations and consultations within government, including with Eskom, to identify and resolve electricity supply constraints.
“As a structure that integrates areas of responsibility and resources within government, the National Energy Crisis Committee provides support to the Minister in the identification and resolution of bottlenecks.
“In view of these developments, the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Thembisile Nkadimeng, has decided to terminate the National State of Disaster.
“Following the termination of the state of disaster, all regulations and directions made in terms of Section 27(2) of the Act pursuant to the declaration of the national state of disaster to deal with the impact or the severe electricity supply constraint are repealed with immediate effect,” said Nkadimeng in the statement.