- South Africa’s President has appointed the country’s first electricity minister to address the unprecedented power shortages there.
- The outages have been badly affecting homes and businesses for months.
South Africa’s President has appointed the country’s first electricity minister to address the unprecedented power shortages there. Kgosientsho Ramokgopa’s most pressing task will be ending the daily blackouts, which can last up to 15 hours daily, and dealing with corruption allegations at the state-run energy giant, Eskom. The outages have been badly affecting homes and businesses for months.
A state of disaster was declared in February, giving the government additional powers to resolve the crisis with less bureaucracy, regulation and extra funds. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the new electricity ministry and Minister on Monday as part of a cabinet reshuffle.
The President noted that the most urgent task was to “drastically reduce the severity of load shedding in the coming months. The appointed minister will have political responsibility, authority and control over all critical aspects of the energy action plan.”