Africa-Press – South-Africa. With the country still hampered by load shedding, and with no end in sight, it is perhaps no surprise the focus of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s question session on Thursday will be the energy crisis.
In February, during his State of the Nation Address, Ramaphosa announced he would appoint an Electricity Minister in the Presidency.
About a month later, he got around to appointing this minister, with former Tshwane mayor Kgosientsho Ramokgopa in the post.
At the time of writing, Ramokgopa’s delegation of powers has not yet been announced.
He is also not overseen by a parliamentary committee.
The National Assembly Rules Committee decided not to establish a portfolio committee for this purpose, as Ramokgopa’s department will not get its own budget from National Treasury, but draw its funds from the Presidency’s budget.
The Presidency, however, is the only budget that does not have an oversight committee, and ANC MPs are in no hurry to change this.
IFP chief whip Narend Singh has a proposal before the Rules Committee for the establishment of such a committee, but ANC MPs insist on doing more “research”, which would include a trip abroad.
The ANC also blocked the DA’s proposal to establish an ad hoc committee to oversee Ramokgopa.
So, this is perhaps why the ANC thought it wise to give Ramaphosa an opportunity to “convince the public that the fact that the minister of electricity, located in the Presidency, is not an attempt to shift oversight on energy policy away from Parliament”.
The first question, by ANC MP Khaya Magaxa, is: “Considering that the appointment of the minister of electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, is geared towards reducing load shedding and formulating specific interventions to address the existing energy generation gap so that the supply of electricity through multiple energy carriers can meet the demand that the Republic faces, [a] how will he convince the public that the fact that the minister of electricity is located in the Presidency is not an attempt to shift oversight on energy policy away from Parliament and [b] what time frames has he put in place for the minister of electricity regarding progress and developments made insofar as addressing energy insecurity and reducing load shedding are concerned?”.
One of the measures, the ANC MPs argued constitute parliamentary oversight over Ramokgopa, is ministerial statements.
On Wednesday, Parliament announced Ramokgopa requested National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to deliver such a statement, and this will be heard on Thursday.
Parliament’s statement read:
“Rule 133[1] provides that a Cabinet member may request the Speaker for an opportunity for that Cabinet member or the relevant deputy minister on behalf of that Cabinet member to make a factual or policy statement relating to government policy, any executive action, or other similar matter of which the House should be informed.”
However, later on Wednesday evening, Parliament sent out an alert stating the Ramokgopa’s statement has been postponed at his request.
This week, the National Assembly’s financial watchdog, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, has been interrogating the explosive allegations of corruption at the struggling power utility made by former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter.
This will also be discussed in the National Assembly, when DA leader John Steenhuisen will ask Ramaphosa: “Whether, with reference to his reply to question 798 on 19 April 2023, and in light of the more recent reports that a certain political organisation [name furnished] received R202 000 from an Eskom sub-contractor who allegedly defrauded Eskom, he, in accordance with the government’s stated commitment to fight corruption, took any steps to identify the members of the Cabinet and other senior government officials alleged by Mr André de Ruyter to be involved in corruption at Eskom; if not, in each case; why not; if so, what are the details of the [a] steps that he has taken in this regard and [b] persons against whom the specified steps have been taken?”
The other electricity related questions deal with “clean energy” and a “green economy”.
ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe asks: “Whether the commitment by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the European Union to assist the Republic with transitioning the economy much quicker from relying on coal plants to a clean energy as announced by the President Mr Joe Biden, of the United States, at the Conference of Parties on 26 November 2021, is still on track; if not, why not; if so, what total amount has been committed by the specified countries; whether any amount from that commitment will be used to maintain our ailing coal plants while the transition takes place; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?”
ANC MP Sahlulele Luzipo asks: “In light of the fact that the Council for Geoscience is embarking on surveying the Republic’s mineral resources deemed necessary in the transition to a green economy, with an aim of growing the economy while simultaneously leading to local mineral beneficiation, what progress has the government made in terms of increasing investment in the Council for Geoscience to improve the performance of the ailing mining sector; whether the government considered creating a sovereign wealth fund to ensure that the mineral resources, which are increasingly becoming important in the face of transitioning to a green economy, are expropriated for broad-based and inclusive development purposes; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?”
International news network Al Jazeera recently exposed the so-called “gold mafia” and money laundering in southern Africa.
This inspired the question from GOOD MP Brett Herron, who asks: “In light of the government’s expressed commitment to fight corruption and Al Jazeera’s undercover exposé titled, Gold Mafia, which drew back the curtain on money laundering in southern Africa, and in view of the Republic having been greylisted and the nation needing swift action against any criminal enterprises looking to exploit our market, what [a] is the government’s official position regarding the hard undercover evidence from the exposé that shows South African leaders, prominent business figures and financial institutions being criminally implicated and [b] action is currently being taken to investigate individuals who have South African ties in order to clear up any dirty money currently circulating in all our financial sectors, which ties back to the illegal export of precious materials?”
Murderer and rapist Thabo Bester’s daring escape last year is another indictment on South Africa’s security cluster.
ANC MP Thabo Mmutle asks: “Considering that issues such as the fleeing of Mr Shepherd Bushiri, the July unrest and the escape of Mr Thabo Bester from the Mangaung Correctional Centre are some examples which have exposed certain weaknesses in the security cluster, what steps does the government intend to take to ensure that the specified weaknesses are addressed so that the confidence in the nation is boosted in the global community?”
The sitting is scheduled to start at 14:00.
– This report has been changed to reflect that Ramokgopa’s ministerial statement has been postponed.
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