• An imminent government gazette is expected to outline the the powers of Minister for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.
• The Minister has been in his role for nearly three months, visiting power stations across the country in that time.
• The fact that his powers are only being detailed now, is quite concerning.

During a press briefing on Monday, Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya was fielding several questions as regards the powers of recently appointed Minister for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. With close to three months under his belt as Electricity Minster, the public is only set to receive a government gazette outlining his powers now.

It therefore begs the question as to what the Electricity Minister has been empowered to do in the interim.

This as one of the first notable things that Ramokgopa did in his new role involved visiting every power station in the country, before proclaiming that “technical issues” and not corruption is what ails Eskom at the moment.

The fact that Ramokgopa has since had to revisit the Kusile power station to ascertain what is troubling the critically vital element to the nation’s power grid, also gives cause for concern.

“Last time I was here, management indicated that they will be bringing those three units back. The last one will be brought back on the 24th of December, the last one of the three will be back by the 28th of November 2023 and the second one by the 11th of December,” Ramokgopa shared during his revisit of Kusile.

All this time, however, it looks like government has been carefully choosing what powers the Electricity Minister will and will not have.

“The President has not failed to allocate powers to the Minister of Electricity. In fact, that issue has been resolved. The proclamation has been signed and you will have the details of that proclamation once it’s been gazetted,” said Magwenya per SA News.

“Yes, it has taken time, as it should because of the necessary consultations that had to be held to ensure that, in resolving the electricity crisis, we do so in a manner that is harmonious with respect to the workings of government. We take into consideration that that portfolio is a transitional sort of portfolio; it’s not a permanent portfolio. Therefore, whatever power that you allocated to it, you will not do so at the risk of causing short term or long term instability in government,” he continued.

A precise date has not been shared as to when the aforementioned government gazette will be detailed, but it will make for interesting reading as loadshedding continues unabated.

[Image – CC BY-ND 2.0 GovernmentZA on Flickr]