{"id":44558,"date":"2023-02-14T20:14:12","date_gmt":"2023-02-14T20:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/sona-debate-dominated-by-electricity-crisis"},"modified":"2023-02-14T20:42:01","modified_gmt":"2023-02-14T20:42:01","slug":"sona-debate-dominated-by-electricity-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/sona-debate-dominated-by-electricity-crisis","title":{"rendered":"SONA debate dominated by electricity crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The first three hours of the debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) have been dominated by South Africa’s energy crisis.<\/p>\n

Like SONA on Thursday, MPs from both Houses of Parliament gathered in the Cape Town City Hall on Tuesday to debate the address.<\/p>\n

ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina opened the debate and pre-empted that the opposition would “blow a lot of hot air” about the declaration of a state of disaster on the energy crisis.<\/p>\n

But, she said, this would miss the point. She added that the government was responding to a call from the people of South Africa to end load shedding.<\/p>\n

She added: ” We are waiting for the Minister of Electricity to gallop on this matter.”<\/p>\n

DA leader John Steenhuisen described Ramaphosa’s presidency as “five disastrous years.”<\/p>\n

“Instead of getting the state out of the way of private electricity generation, he gave sweeping powers to the same minister who abused the people of this country during Covid,” he said.<\/p>\n

Steenhuisen added:<\/p>\n

Steenhuisen said that by expanding rather than shrinking the state’s role, Ramaphosa had “all but guaranteed that load shedding and all the other terrible crises we face will only get worse”.<\/p>\n

Ministers Mondli Gungubele, Gwede Mantashe and Ebrahim Patel all took aim at the opposition parties criticising government, while listing measures that had been put in place to address the energy crisis.<\/p>\n

“The declaration of the National State of Disaster will assist in speedy resolution of the energy supply challenges while minimising its impact and contribute immensely in the rebuilding process,” said Gungubele, who also claimed Ramaphosa’s SONA was “historic in many ways”.<\/p>\n

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde, however, pointed out that since Ramaphosa had announced his energy action plan in July last year, not a single new megawatt had been added to the grid.<\/p>\n

EFF leader Julius Malema made several unsubstantiated allegations against Police Minister Bheki Cele, who responded in kind.<\/p>\n

Several opposition speakers were also unimpressed by Ramaphosa saying South Africans were defined by hope and resilience.<\/p>\n

IFP chief whip Narend Singh, speaking on behalf of the party’s parliamentary leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, said if you asked South Africans what defined them, they would say load shedding, unemployment, and crime.<\/p>\n

The debate will continue on Tuesday afternoon and on Wednesday before Ramaphosa responds on Thursday.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. The first three hours of the debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) have been dominated by South Africa’s energy crisis. Like SONA on Thursday, MPs from both Houses of Parliament gathered in the Cape Town City Hall on Tuesday to debate the address. ANC chief whip Pemmy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":44557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[274,315,235,546,293,303,163,288,4429,275],"class_list":["post-44558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-john-steenhuisen","tag-julius-malema","tag-load-shedding","tag-parliament","tag-politics","tag-sona-2023","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nSONA debate dominated by electricity crisis - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The first three hours of the debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa's State of the Nation Address (SONA) have been dominate ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/sona-debate-dominated-by-electricity-crisis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SONA debate dominated by electricity crisis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The first three hours of the debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa's State of the Nation Address (SONA) have been dominate ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/sona-debate-dominated-by-electricity-crisis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-14T20:14:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-14T20:42:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/02\/postQueueImg_1676393062.25.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"665\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/sona-debate-dominated-by-electricity-crisis#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/sona-debate-dominated-by-electricity-crisis\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"SONA debate dominated by electricity crisis\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-14T20:14:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-14T20:42:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/sona-debate-dominated-by-electricity-crisis\"},\"wordCount\":408,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/sona-debate-dominated-by-electricity-crisis#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/02\/postQueueImg_1676393062.25.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"Cyril Ramaphosa\",\"john steenhuisen\",\"julius malema\",\"load shedding\",\"Parliament\",\"politics\",\"sona 2023\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/sona-debate-dominated-by-electricity-crisis#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/sona-debate-dominated-by-electricity-crisis\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/sona-debate-dominated-by-electricity-crisis\",\"name\":\"SONA debate dominated by electricity crisis - 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