DA, Solidarity head to court to challenge state of disaster
The DA and trade union Solidarity have both announced an intention to challenge the declaration of a national state of disaster in court.
President Cyril Ramaphosa declared the energy crisis as a national disaster during his State of the Nation Address on Thursday evening.
The declaration, which has already been gazetted, is meant to fast-track government’s efforts to tackle the electricity shortage that has put the brakes on economic growth.
But DA leader John Steenhuisen believes the declaration is a dangerous move on the part of the president.
“South Africa has been down this road before. During the Covid-19 disaster, we saw the fatal flaws in the national state of disaster legislation, which allows the ANC unfettered power to loot without any parliamentary oversight.
“The DA is already in court to declare the Disaster Management Act unconstitutional and we will now do the same to prevent the ANC looting frenzy that will follow Ramaphosa’s dangerous and desperate announcement like night follows day," said Steenhuisen.
He says a state of disaster will only provide the ANC with an opportunity to abuse procurement processes.
"Instead of punishing the people with a sweeping disaster declaration for the damage wrought by decades of ANC corruption and cadre deployment at Eskom, the DA has consistently called for urgent and focused interventions in the energy sector.”
Meanwhile, Solidarity's Dirk Hermann says the trade union will also be heading to court.
“We dare not allow a repeat of the government’s abuse of power that occurred during the Covid-19 state of disaster. The decision making that led to a ban on warm chicken meals and flip-flops now wants to take the decisions about the energy crisis without proper oversight. A state of disaster will not end the energy crisis any faster, but it opens the door to major abuse once again. This is quite simply a lose-lose situation.
“No amount of legislation will be able to rectify uselessness and incompetence. A state of disaster is equal to giving an incompetent builder a bigger hammer – it will not lead to better construction, but rather to more damage," says Hermann.
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