Kgosientsho Ramakgopa, the new electricity minister, may still be trying to win over South Africans, but he has now made a bold statement. Ramokgopa, who is also a member of the ANC’s national executive committee, the party’s highest decision-making body, says his priority is to reduce the intensity and frequency of load-shedding rather than to secure votes for the ruling party.

“We should disentangle what our electoral ambitions are and the requirements to resolve the [electricity crisis] … they are related … but we have a duty to do this responsibly and our actions can be substantiated,” he told Business Day in an exclusive interview. Together with the declaration of the national state of disaster, Ramokgopa’s appointment is the latest attempt by the government to solve a more than decade-old electricity supply problem.

That has highlighted the systemic importance of state-owned enterprises and prompted the governing party to rethink its ideological stance on the role of the private sector in energy generation.The state of disaster gives powers to cabinet ministers to issue directives, in line with their portfolios, to ensure that critical infrastructure is exempt from load-shedding.

This includes railways and ports, health facilities, water treatment plants, telecommunication services and food storage facilities. But Ramokgopa believes the regulations should be invoked only as a last resort if existing legislation is insufficient for emergency procurement and environmental exemptions.