ANC deputy-president Paul Mashatile. Picture: Phando Jikelo/African News Agency (ANA) Archives
ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile has also hinted that the Cabinet reshuffle will happen in the next few days.
This comes a few hours after President Cyril Ramaphosa said earlier it would be done in due course.
This was after former deputy president David Mabuza resigned from Cabinet, forcing another vacancy in government.
Mashatile, who was addressing the National Union of Mineworkers’ special congress, said the Cabinet reshuffle would happen in the next few days.
But he told delegates that he didn’t know the exact date.
Mashatile was making the comments after he said the ANC welcomed the appointment of a minister of electricity to deal with the energy crisis.
Ramaphosa had made the announcement on this new minister of electricity during his State of the Nation Address last month.
Mashatile said the appointment of the minister of electricity would come in to stabilise the energy crisis as the government planned to bring more megawatts to the grid.
“As the ANC we welcome the establishment of the ministry of electricity. As you know comrades, the president indicated he is going to appoint the minister of electricity, hopefully within the next few days. I don’t know when. Don’t ask me about the exact date, next few days.
“We hope it will ensure that there is a dedicated capacity and resources aimed at addressing one of the biggest challenges of our time, which is energy insecurity,” said Mashatile.
He also said the ANC was opposed to the privatisation of any state-owned entity.
He said this was in line with the conference resolution last December at Nasrec where the party did not back the privatisation of SOEs.
This came after some of the unions said the government was planning to privatise some of the entities.
Some of the SOEs have been relying on the state for bailouts for years.
But, Mashatile said despite the financial challenges faced by SOEs, they would not allow their outright privatisation.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
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