Analysts Skeptical About South Africa's 'State of Disaster': SouthAfrica
The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, plans to challenge the state of disaster in court, saying it wants to prevent the kind of looting that took place during the COVID-19 emergency, as President Cyril Ramaphosa's action will empower the ruling African National Congress party to side-step normal procurement processes.
Professor Lisa Thompson, a political economist at the University of the Western Cape, says it is a concern expressed by many, though she notes it is heartening the president finally seemed to acknowledge the urgency of resolving the energy crisis. Power outages have been implemented on and off since about 2008.
"It's not just a statement of intent. It's about dealing with an actual real time crisis, which analysts and citizens feel that the president has handled badly," Thompson said."He has sat on his hands and not resolved this issue." She says a recent field trip to the less developed province of Limpopo brought home the impact of the electricity crisis.
"I was absolutely horrified at how little power areas like Louis Trichardt and Messina had," Thompson said."We had more than 12 hours of no electricity every day, a lot of it actually in the day. How businesses up there are functioning, I really do not know.""On the one hand, I do believe that special powers would and could, if applied correctly, make a difference in expediting some of the bureaucratic process involved to deal with the energy crisis," Yelland said.
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