The President of South Africa has declared "a national state of disaster to respond to the electricity crisis and its effects", which would enable the government to implement practical measures to support businesses in the food production, storage and retail supply chain and to accelerate the roll-out of generators and solar panels to improve power supply. The state of disaster will also enable the exemption of critical infrastructure such as water treatment plants and hospitals from loadshedding and to accelerate energy projects while limiting regulatory requirements. The national power utility Eskom will remain within the Ministry of Public Entreprises and will not be shifted to the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy; the company will still be restructured (separation of transmission activities from Eskom's power generation and distribution activities) and the National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA) should soon be operational with an independent board. In addition, a Minister of Electricity will be appointed by the Presidency to assume full responsibility for overseeing all aspects of the electricity crisis response.
Eskom implemented power cuts on more than 200 days in 2022, with record cuts of 6 to 8 hours a day for most households. The company is currently implementing stage-3 and stage-4 loadshedding measures (3-4 GW of capacity unavailable).
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