ANC power struggle threatens South Africa’s plans to end load-shedding

Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa (pictured) is at loggerheads with energy minister Gwede Mantashe and public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan over the powers he is to be granted to solve the load-shedding crisis, the Sunday Times reports.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has not officially designated Ramokgopa’s powers, causing contention over whether he will be placed in control of procurement and financing and slowing the country’s proposed rapid transition to renewable energy sources.

The power to procure new energy sources sits with Mantashe, while financing and budgeting powers belong to Gordhan.

City Press reports that Mantashe, in particular, appears to oppose expanding Ramokgopa’s powers.

During a meeting between the two, Mantashe allegedly went so far as to challenge Ramaphosa to fire him rather than cut his powers in the energy sector.

Citing National Executive Committee (NEC) insiders, Sunday Times reported that Ramokgopa was willing to forfeit the power to procure when he briefed cabinet and ANC leaders at last week’s NEC meeting.

However, a letter sent to Mantashe by Ramaphosa allegedly made it clear that Mantashe would “have to cede all powers regarding energy to Ramokgopa”.

The electricity minister also reportedly said he would forgo financing powers. However, he was told he could not do his job without them as they would enable him to decide how the budget is prioritised at Eskom.

Gwede Mantashe, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy

Ramokgopa, Mantashe, and Gordhan are set to meet this coming week to attempt to resolve the alleged impasse.

While Ramokgopa has denied the standoff between himself and the other two ministers, the ANC, through secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, has openly acknowledged the power struggle.

Mbalula said the president “can’t allow anarchy at this moment when we have to keep the lights on”.

Ramaphosa has also denied any “territorial battles” regarding expanding Ramokgopa’s powers.

“When I appointed the minister of electricity, I made it absolutely clear what the roles of the three ministers would be,” the Sunday Times quoted him as saying.

“I made it clear that the minister of electricity is going to focus his attention on ridding our country of load-shedding.”

Ramaphosa appointed Ramokgopa as Minister in the Presidency for Electricity on 6 March 2023, meaning it has been over a month without him receiving clarification on his powers.

The President said the new electricity minister would focus full-time on ending load-shedding and ensuring his Energy Action Plan is implemented without delay.

“The appointed minister will have political responsibility, authority, and control over all critical aspects of the Energy Action Plan,” he said.

“This will help to deal with the challenge of fragmentation of responsibility across various departments and ministers, which, while appropriate under normal circumstances, is not conducive to addressing the crisis that we are in.”

Pravin Gordhan, Minister of Public Enterprises

Since his appointment, Ramokgopa has toured Eskom’s power stations with the aim of better understanding their problems.

He identified three power stations — Hendrina, Tutuka, and Kusile — that he believes present the best opportunity to end rotational power cuts in South Africa.

Together, the three power stations have an installed capacity of 8,854MW — equivalent to eight stages of load-shedding.

This excludes Kusile’s Unit 5 and 6 generators, which are not yet operational.

Ramokgopa highlighted what he identified as the most pressing issues at the Tutuka Power Station, which include poor quality coal and procurement irregularities related to corruption.

“There are issues that require attention in the procurement environment, and this can be closely associated with the existence of corruption,” the minister said.

Corruption at the power station has been a long-standing issue and delays Tutuka’s ability to procure quality spares at the right time and price.

Ramokgopa stated that the power station’s issue with poor-quality coal doesn’t relate to corruption.

“Let me hasten to say that the quality of the coal has nothing to do with the cartels but everything to do with the planning of the mine and what comes out of the mine,” he said.

During a media briefing on Thursday, 6 April 2023, Ramokgopa shared his recommendations to fight load-shedding following his power station visits.

He said government needed to seriously consider spending more on various coal power station technologies to improve performance and extend the life of ailing power stations.

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