ANC leaders were caught off guard by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s appointment of an electricity minister, with some saying the new minister will merely serve as a temporary “project manager”.
Mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe, who also serves as the national chair of the ANC, said he viewed the newly created ministry of electricity as nothing but a project management intervention to deal specifically with load-shedding.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, like Mantashe, said he views the ministry as a temporary measure which is not a deviation from the governing party’s conference resolution to hand Eskom over to the DMRE minister.
“It is not a departure from the conference resolution. It is a measure of intervention. Where we will cross swords [with the president] if we have to is if it [the ministry of electricity] is made to be permanent, which will mean a total departure and replication of responsibility,” Mbalula said.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Mantashe said the electricity minister will be limited to dealing with the load-shedding crisis while he and public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan continue with their respective work as it relates to energy.
This “project manager”, he said, will pull things together under one roof, in a similar way to the work now done by the National Energy Crisis Committee.
“To me, my understanding of this intervention from the president is that we must approach this issue as a project management intervention so that we project-manage the management of load-shedding,” said Mantashe.
“If there is a project manager who pulls things together, the approach is better than a loose arrangement. You are creating a ministry to focus on electricity. My interpretation is that [it is] to focus on the project of dealing with load-shedding.
“I have no problem with the announcement because electricity was not in DMRE [the department of mineral resources & energy] anyway, so I cannot be unhappy with an announcement that does not impact on the department that I lead.”
Mbalula said he “agrees with Mantashe who calls it a project manager” and is of the same understanding that the minister will solely focus on tackling load-shedding.
Mantashe said as far as he is concerned, the new ministry has no bearing on his duties in the department of energy.
He refused to be drawn on whether he was aware in advance there was a plan to create the ministry.
Gwede’s reaction said it all. He said this is a project manager. What is that?
— ANC NEC source
He believes the announcement does not change the ANC 55th national conference resolution for Eskom to be moved to his department.
“The question of the ANC resolution is addressed in the rider that the president added that said full packaging of government will be announced in due course and my imagining is that the packaging will come with [a] reshuffling exercise which will be fully fledged.
“The ANC conference, which I attended, resolved in a particular way, but the actual packaging of government is the duty of the president.”
Mbalula said: “Let this minister focus us on this task of load-shedding, reinforce and ensure we cross the storm.”
The Sunday Times has reliably learnt that the announcement caught Mantashe and members of the ANC top seven by surprise.
ANC-tripartite alliance partners such as Cosatu had also not been consulted on the matter, said the labour federation’s president, Zingiswa Losi.
Losi said Cosatu “had no clue” that such an announcement would be made and they were confused about what it was intended for.
Instead, Losi said, what Cosatu was expecting was an announcement that would activate the shutdown of the department of public enterprises and the moving of Eskom to Mantashe’s ministry.
“What is the intention? What is the objective? Is it a permanent ministry? Is it only going to last for the period of the national state of disaster to take us out of this?
“We still want to be taken into confidence. It was a shock to all of us.”
Losi said the appointment was unnecessary as the existing deputy minister of monitoring & evaluation could have been given the task.
Several senior ANC leaders said they had been blindsided as they only became aware of the new ministry when it was announced during Sona.
“No, he didn’t tell us anything but, well, it’s an interesting development and we’re hoping to get details around his thinking when we convene the next officials’ meeting,” one ANC top seven member said.
“It is quite strange because conference said Eskom must go to Gwede and he has now moved it to his own office but, like I said, we will hear the thinking around it then.”
Another source in the ANC NEC said: “Even Gwede was caught by surprise. I think he knew something was coming but what that was he did not know. Gwede’s reaction said it all. He said this is a project manager. What is that?”
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