President Cyril Ramaphosa has moved to defend the proposed appointment of a new Minister of Electricity in the Presidency, amid concern that the appointee would have overlapping responsibilities with both the energy and public enterprises Ministers that could result in “turf wars”.

In his response to the debate on the State of the Nation Address, during which opposition parties slammed the proposed new ministerial post as both unnecessary and expensive, Ramaphosa said the energy crisis required effective coordination across several departments and public entities, which would be provided by the new Minister.

“It requires the undivided attention of a political principal who does not need to split their time and energies among different important responsibilities,” he argued, adding that the new Minister would be responsible for driving the various actions being coordinated by the National Energy Crisis Committee.

“This appointment will ensure that there is a Minister who is ultimately responsible for resolving loadshedding and who is able to work with all fellow Cabinet Ministers, departments and entities to do so.”

Ramaphosa denied that the appointment would lead to confusion and fragmentation, or turf wars with the other Ministers who dealt with energy and Eskom.

“The Minister of Electricity will be focused day in and day out only on addressing the loadshedding crisis, working together with the management of Eskom and the board.

“The Minister will be leading the National Energy Crisis Committee and interacting with all other departments in the spirit of cooperative governance.”

By contrast, the Mineral Resources and Energy Minister would be dealing with energy policy that went beyond the current energy crisis.

The Public Enterprises Minister, meanwhile, would continue to work on the restructuring of Eskom as well as other State-owned enterprises until a restructuring of government was implemented “to enable entities that fall under various departments to be properly located in those departments”.

While refraining from repeating Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe’s characterisation of the new Minster of Electricity as that of a “project manager”, Ramaphosa echoed Mantashe’s call for “urgency of execution and delivery”, which he described as paramount.

“With the focus that the Minister of Electricity will have on loadshedding and the work that is being done by Eskom and the board I do believe that we stand a much better chance to address this overriding challenge and crisis that our country faces.”

Ramaphosa also stood by his controversial decision to declare the long-running electricity crisis a national state of disaster.

The move is being opposed legally by the Democratic Alliance, the country’s official opposition, as well as by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, which announced on February 16 that it had lodged an application in the Pretoria High Court to have the declaration overturned.

Ramaphosa said the state of disaster, which was declared on February 9 in the absence of supporting regulations, would be used to “mitigate the social and economic effects of loadshedding and accelerate the measures necessary to close the shortfall in electricity, and nothing else”.

“As I said in the State of the Nation Address, we will ensure that environmental protections and technical standards are maintained, and that procurement is undertaken with transparency and proper oversight.

“We will use the state of disaster to get rid of unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles that stand in the way of urgently bringing new generation capacity onto the grid.

“We will use it to ensure continuity in the provision of critical services and supply chains, and to address the impact of loadshedding on businesses and households.”

Meanwhile, the President also used his speech to address what he described as “myths” that had been repeated during the debate, including that South Africa was abandoning coal and that the unbundling of Eskom was out of step with international trends.

“We should all remember that coal-fired power stations provide 80% of our energy source and will therefore continue to provide the bulk of our ‘base load’ supply into the future,” he said, reiterating government’s policy commitment to employing a mix of technologies to produce electricity.

“We must dispel the idea that unbundling of Eskom into three separate State-owned entities is out of step with international trends.

“The reality is that over 100 countries (including China, Germany and Russia) have established independent transmission and system operation companies.

“We need to dispel the claim that creating a more competitive, efficient and sustainable electricity generation market threatens the ability of the State to provide affordable electricity to its citizens.

“On the contrary, the reforms we are undertaking will improve the ability of the State to provide power to the people now and into the future.”