Hospitals, ports, railways, water treatment plants and other essential infrastructure will be exempted from the burden under the terms of the national disaster regulations announced on Tuesday by Minister of Cooperatives and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.
The regulation was gazetted following a meeting of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet and the presidential coordination council (PCC) on Monday following the state of calamity declared on February 9.
They also free critical electronic communications and broadcasting infrastructure and – where possible – food production and storage facilities from load-shedding and immediate effect.
The regulation allows government departments to use emergency procurement procedures to add new energy sources and carry out maintenance work on existing electricity infrastructure.
But the accounting officer must report on emergency expenditure to the auditor general and parliament, a measure aimed at preventing a recurrence of the looting of emergency Covid-19 funding that occurred in 2020 and 2021.
The regulation allows Eskom to import electricity from neighboring countries, while electricity “wheeling” to allow third-party networks to supply power will also be provided to increase power generation.
All government departments will be forced to introduce electricity saving measures and install alternative energy sources in their facilities to ensure that the services they provide are less disruptive.
Cabinet spokesperson Nomonde Mnukwa said the regulations were drafted with the understanding that South Africa “finds itself in uncharted waters, where constrained energy supplies have gone beyond discomfort to affect livelihoods and jeopardize our economic progress”.
Mnukwa said the regulations are aimed at reducing the effects of load shedding on service delivery and life and livelihoods and protecting infrastructure while developing sufficient energy generating capacity in the long term.
This includes improving the performance of Eskom’s plants and providing measures to connect new sources of electricity to the national grid.
All electricity installations and upgrades will be exempt from the requirements of the National Environmental Management Act and land use regulations to speed up the process of bringing new generation capacity online.
Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele said the regulation was the result of “extensive consultation” and represented “the best option available for the country’s situation and within the available resources to address the energy challenge”.
A court challenge to the legality of the state of disaster declaration by groups including the Organization Undoing Tax Abuse is set to be heard this week.