On 9 February 2023, Government issued a notice in terms of the Disaster Management Act of 2002 (the Act), declaring a state of national disaster in relation to the impact of the severe electricity supply constraints. Pursuant to the declaration, the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, has issued Regulations in terms of section 27(2) of the Act.
The Regulations relate to minimising the impact of load shedding, specifically in relation to lifesaving and specified essential infrastructure such as; health infrastructure, water infrastructure, rail and ports infrastructure, food production, and critical electronic communications and broadcasting infrastructure. The Regulations also make provision for emergency procurement procedures and allow relevant cabinet ministers to issue directions that expedite, streamline and/or facilitate actions that will mitigate the adverse impact of the consistently constrained electricity supply.
In the employment context, the Regulations also make provision for relevant Cabinet ministers to issue directions on taking steps that may be necessary to prevent an escalation of the national state of disaster, or to alleviate, contain or minimise the effects of the national state of disaster. In this regard, the question is whether these forthcoming directions (as well as any further regulations that are issued) may potentially prescribe processes that impact on the workplace such as restricting retrenchments; regulating time-off and remuneration for employees during periods of load shedding that affect a business's operations; and/or make provision to interdict industrial action where such action escalates and exacerbates the national state of disaster time to time.