Cooperative Governance minister gazettes disaster management regulations on energy
Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Tuesday gazetted the disaster management regulations on electricity constraints.
The publishing of the regulations followed a special cabinet meeting held on Monday.
The regulations were made public some two weeks after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the country’s energy crisis would be declared a state of disaster to allow government the means to resolve the problem
Dlamini-Zuma said in the gazette that the objectives of the regulations are to assist the energy generating entities to restore their capacity.
“Granting exemptions from load shedding or reduced to load shedding schedules to specified essential infrastructure and services with technically feasible, in alignment with the requirements and obligations of the System Operator and only to the extent that such exemptions or reductions would not result in an increased risk of higher stages of load shedding,” the minister wrote.
The regulations introduce several measures which government believes will protect and provide relief to South Africans.
“To deal with the destructive nature and other effects of the disaster by, among others include health, water, rail and ports infrastructures, food production and food storage facilities and critical electronic communications and broadcasting infrastructure.”
The regulations also set out the emergency procurement procedures, which many fear will lead to the type of corruption seen during the procurement of PPE during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The auditor-general shall conduct real-time audits and report on the accounts, financial statement and financial management of all emergency procurement undertaken during the national state of disaster,” Dlamini-Zuma said in the gazette.
“Accounting officers must take steps to ensure that anti-corruption measures are implemented during emergency procurement.
“The national state of disaster must be published and reported to Parliament within the month of the expenditure by accounting officers and authorities, including the details of such procurement and the reasons for deviating from normal procurement procedures.”
READ FULL GAZETTE BELOW:
Regulations Issued by Mmangaliso Khumalo on Scribd
ALSO READ
