President Cyril Ramaphosa has dismissed claims of inter-ministerial conflicts brought about by the appointment of Electricity Minister, Dr Kgosientso Ramokgopa.
The powers of the new Electricity Minister have not yet been clearly defined, bringing some concerns that the new minister may take away certain roles and responsibilities that currently reside with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy as well as Public Enterprises.
Ramaphosa has sought to allay unhappiness over the new energy plan by Minister Ramokgopa.
There’s no territorial battle in this matter when I appointed the Minister of Electricity, I made it clear what the roles of the three ministers would be. I made it clear that the Minister of Electricity is going to focus on ridding our country of rolling blackouts and therefore he’s going to focus on the generation of the energy that we need so that we reduce and eliminate blackouts – that’s his task and that’s his mandate.
ANC NEC member, Mmamoloko Kubayi, has also echoed the president, in clarifying the situation regarding claims of a rift between the three ministers in the energy cluster as efforts continue to address the electricity crisis.
“It’s an assumption that there is a fight. There is no fight and the issue of roles and responsibilities are dedicated by the president from a policy point of view. As the ANC, we are saying we want to see the end of load shedding but I understand that the president will be doing some of the proclamation you know how government separates the powers in terms of departments and all those things. They are done in terms of proclamation and maybe that could bridge the gap that has led to perceptions of fights. But what has been happening is that comrade Sputla has been working with both Mantashe and Pravin.”
President Ramaphosa says South Africa’s energy plan is on track:
