Africa-Press – South-Africa. President Cyril Ramaphosa will resolve newly appointed Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa’s functions and powers speedily, with engagements between ministers taking centre stage.
This is according to Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, who on Wednesday briefed journalists on the president’s public programme for the coming weeks.
According to Magwenya, Ramokgopa has been hard at work looking at various solutions to end load shedding.
“The minister has led very important debates on what we need to consider as a country as we tackle our energy crisis. He has also engaged a number of stakeholders as well as cooperating with the understanding that government alone cannot solve this crisis,” he said.
In Ramaphosa’s view the minister has added a lot of impetus in this work and will continue to do so, Magwenya said.
“The president is satisfied [with what] the minister has been able to do thus far. There is a sense of speed and urgency across the board in the implementation of the energy action plan that the president announced last year,” he said.
A parliamentary committee will not oversee Ramokgopa as his ministry won’t have its own budget, the National Assembly Rules Committee has decided.
ANC economic transformation subcommittee chairperson Mmamoloko Kubayi said discussions between legal teams from the Presidency, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy and the Department of Public Enterprises were still ironing out which powers should be delegated to Ramokgopa.
In February, after Ramaphosa announced the establishment of the electricity ministry in his State of the Nation Address, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the ministry wouldn’t have its own budget.
“The issue of power and functions will be resolved fairly soon. There are engagements taking place between the president and the minister as well as other ministers that have a role in the energy crisis. This matter has not disabled the minister from doing what he has been able to do so far,” he said.
The electricity department will draw its funds from the Presidency’s budget, and will therefore not have a committee, as there is no budget to oversee.
There is, however, no committee overseeing the Presidency’s budget.
At a recent meeting of Parliament’s Rules Committee, ANC MPs were adamant about keeping it this way until the end of the current term, using the question of whether there is a need for such a committee as an excuse to go on a study tour abroad.
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