Cape Town - Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has set out regulations of the state of disaster to minimise the impact of load shedding in various sectors and protect essential services from power cuts.
The regulations would, among other things, exempt essential services, including hospitals, from load shedding. Eskom would also buy electricity from neighbouring states.
In addition, the regulations will empower municipalities, departments and other state institutions to invoke emergency procurement.
But to prevent corruption, Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke has been brought in to conduct real-time audits on the financial transactions.
Maluleke was also involved in the Covid-19 emergency procurement process where she identified corruption, and some of the cases are already in court.
The implementation of the regulations follows a special Cabinet meeting on Monday, which was convened by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The meeting comes after Ramaphosa announced in his State of the Nation Address early in February that he would declare the national state of disaster to deal with load shedding.
In the regulations, Dlamini Zuma announced a range of measures to ensure the economy continued to function and hospitals and other essential services were exempted from the rolling blackouts.
Dlamini Zuma said the regulations came into effect after they were gazetted on Monday.
She said all state institutions using emergency procurement must do so in line with the Public Finance Management Act, the Municipal Finance Management Act or other applicable laws.
“The auditor-general shall conduct real-time audits and report on the accounts, financial statements and financial management of all emergency procurement undertaken during the national state of disaster. Accounting officers must take steps to ensure that the anti-corruption measures are implemented during emergency procurement. Any procurement undertaken using the emergency provisions referred to … during 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,” said Dlamini Zuma in the regulations.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
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