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national state of disasterlatest news & developments
Water treatment plants, along with hospitals, harbours, railways and other critical infrastructure are supposed to be exempted from load-shedding in terms of national state of disaster regulations promulgated last month. (Photo by Sharon Seretlo/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

Ramaphosa: Water works may be exempted from load-shedding

The government is in talks with Eskom to keep water pumps going during blackouts, the president told MPs

The last time the country experienced load-shedding at stage six was at the end of November 2023 (Dwayne Senior/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Load-shedding is not an act of God, litigants tell high court

It was caused by the failings of the government, which has a responsibility to spare hospitals, schools and police stations to protect people’s rights

Wind energy is cost effective and pollution intolerant. One Megawatt of wind energy equates to 2 600 fewer tonnes of carbon emissions, in comparison with coal-fired energy generation. (Photo: Rodger Bosch/AFP)

Court cases ‘will not stop energy plan’

An energy action plan is slowly taking shape, with significant milestones reached recently, including obtaining a licence for Eskom’s new transmission company

Shocking state: President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers his State of the Nation address at City Hall in Cape Town, where he announced the electricity crisis as a national state of disaster.  Photo: Dwayne Senior/Bloomberg

Energy crisis can hardly be categorised as a disaster, says expert

But widespread, destructive flooding does qualify as a disaster

The Democratic Alliance  has called for a “mass protest” in Cape Town on Wednesday against what it has dubbed the “race quotas” bill.
(@jsteenhuisen / Twitter)

State of the Nation address debate opens 2024 election season early

DA leader says voters face a clear choice in next year’s national polls after president lost the opportunity to pull back from the brink

President Cyril Ramaphosa. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Ramaphosa announces national state of disaster on energy

In a hint of what will come in his cabinet reshuffle, the president sidelined Mantashe with plan to appoint energy minister in the presidency

President Cyril Ramaphosa. (GCIS)

Sona: Ramaphosa announces state of disaster, new electricity minister to tackle energy crisis

With the country’s economy on the brink, the president assured the nation that ending load-shedding is his government’s top priority

Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma is now a minister in the presidency responsible for youth, women and people with disabilities. (Photo by Luiz Rampelotto/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Court orders Dlamini-Zuma to disclose records leading to Covid-19 regulations

The business organisation, Sakeliga, which made the application, says Covid-19 lockdowns did ‘unprecedented harm to economic and social activity’

Rebuild efforts have been mired in concerns about looting, but — if funding is spent properly — it could provide a much-needed stimulus to a province that was hit by two crises in less than a year. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy

KZN flood ‘rebuild’ could offer much-needed economic stimulus

Rebuild efforts have been mired in concerns about looting, but it could provide a much-needed stimulus to a crisis-hit province

FILE PHOTO: Residents walk past the Quarry Road informal settlement outside Durban on April 18, 2022 as rain again begins to fall following winds, downpours and mudslides, which destroyed homes and infrastructure.(Photo by RAJESH JANTILAL/AFP via Getty Images)

KwaZulu-Natal floods ‘the worst we’ve ever seen’

More than 40 000 KwaZulu-Natal residents have been left homeless after more than 300mm of rain fell in a single day

A Pastor from the Incredible Happenings Ministry Church of Prophet Paseka Motsoeneng, popularly known as Prophet Mboro, checks the temperature at the entrance of the church in Katlehong, Ekurhuleni, on June 07, 2020. – Rigid distancing, hand sanitising and record keeping was enforced today at the church, where only 50 worshippers have been admitted in observance to South Africa lockdown level 3 regulations. (Photo by MARCO LONGARI / AFP)

What happened to church during Covid?

Attendances rose as lockdown was eased and then lifted — but some people were lured by glamorous online churches abroad

Joe Phaahla. (Photo by Jaco Marais/Die Burger/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

MPs worried Health Act amendments will threaten citizens’ autonomy

More than 150 000 public comments were sent to the department of health after the government suspended the national state of disaster

Up to one in five people can get long COVID — a condition in which someone keeps on feeling ill for months after their initial symptoms have cleared up. (Paul Botes)

Covid-19 hospital admissions low but virus still a threat

Some coronavirus restrictions will remain as South Africa shifts out of the national state of disaster

State of Disaster extension – ‘It’s an incompetency-fuelled power grab’

Medical experts and political and economic analysts have slammed the latest extension to the Covid-19 State of Disaster as a “power grab”

Tshwane Mayor, Randall Williams flights campaign posters on June 10, 2021 in Tshwane, South Africa. The voter registration weekend for local government elections will be held on 17 and 18 July. (Photo by Laird Forbes/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

Tshwane ignores lockdown woes as it cuts power to recoup R17bn

Mayor Randall Williams joined a blitz to switch off the lights of defaulting customers – including a luxury hotel opposite the Union Buildings that owes R23-million

Andy Mothibe has been appointed as the new national director of public prosecutions. File photo by Paul Botes

Government fails to act on officials implicated in R3bn SIU recommendations

Half of the 127 managers incriminated in gross procurement corruption have yet to be disciplined

President Cyril Ramaphosa. (GCIS)

Ramaphosa asks all South Africans to help to avoid 50 000 Covid-19 deaths this year

Calling this ‘the gravest crisis in the history of our democracy’, the president said level three lockdown remains, but enforcement will be strengthened

Co-operative Governance Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has applied to appeal the judgment from the Pretoria high court last week that, in one fell swoop, struck down almost the entire lockdown regulatory regime — almost all of the level three and four regulations — as unconstitutional.

Dlamini-Zuma seeks to appeal the judgment that set aside lockdown regulations

Reyno de Beer had ‘raised an attack … on unidentified regulations, on undisclosed grounds and for unknown reasons’

Unconstitutional: The judge said it was irrational of Cooperative Governance Minister Nkosozana
Dlamin-Zuma to allow taxis, in which passengers were in close proximity, to operate yet hairdressers, with fewer clients, could not reopen.  (Ihsaan Haffejee/Anadolu Agency)

Judge trashes entire lockdown regime as constitutionally flawed

The high court ruling will delight gatvol South Africans but is unlikely to stand the test of time

Limits: A police officer confronts a man pleading for the release of a protester detained for breaching lockdown regulations during a demonstration in Snake Park, Soweto, against electricity cuts.  (Marco Longari/AFP)

Overhaul and align laws on use of force

Guidelines can’t regulate the police and military’s use of lethal force and will, in the end, be subordinate to bad legislation