Solidarity announces legal action against the state of disaster over energy crisis

9 February 2023

Solidarity reacted with shock to the announcement of a national state of disaster by President Ramaphosa to deal with the energy crisis.

“Poor central control landed us in this crisis. Such poor control in even more measures will not get us out of the crisis. Everything the president announced in the State of the Nation Address can already be implemented by using existing legislation. The harsh reality is that all the instruments to solve the crisis are already at the president’s disposal – he simply chooses not to use them. Therefore, a state of disaster is irrational and unnecessary and leaves Solidarity with no option but to litigate,” Dr Dirk Hermann, Solidarity Chief Executive said.

“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,” Hermann continued.

“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. Over the past 16 years the government has shown that they simply cannot resolve the energy crisis. Instead of stepping out of the way and allowing the private and community sectors to solve the problem, the government once again insists on trying to take control of the crisis through the state of disaster. It has not been effective during the past two decades; it will not be effective now either,” Hermann warned.

“Unfortunately, civil society will once again be compelled to go to court to force the government to do the right thing. Solidarity’s legal team has already started to prepare urgent court documents, and these will be served on the government in the coming days. The message to the government is simple: We will solve it ourselves; move out of the way and allow us to do this,” Hermann concluded.

Issued by Connie Mulder, Head: Solidarity Research Institute (SRI), 9 February 2023