CAPE TOWN: South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national disaster on Thursday in a bid to fast-track efforts to tackle a record electricity shortage that has put the brakes on growth in Africa's most industrialised economy.
"We are therefore declaring a national state of disaster to respond to the electricity crisis and its impact," Ramaphosa said in a keynote annual address that was delayed by opposition lawmakers who tried to block him from delivering it.
South Africa is in the grip of its most serious electricity crisis and years-long intermittent power cuts have worsened in recent months.
The electricity network operated by the debt-laden state energy firm Eskom has failed to keep pace with demand as it struggles to maintain its coal-powered infrastructure.
Declaring a national disaster will unlock additional funds and resources to speed up fixing the crisis.
"Extraordinary circumstances do call for extraordinary measures," Ramaphosa said in parliament in a state of the nation speech set back 45 minutes amid objections from some opposition legislators.
Walking out en masse, leftist opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), dressed in their trademark red overalls and work suits, stormed the stage where Ramaphosa was waiting to deliver the speech.
Armed security and police quickly jumped in and forced the MPs off stage.
Ramaphosa also announced that he will appoint a special minister responsible for electricity.
South Africans are despondent at the state of a country battered by a stagnant economy, mounting crime, dizzying unemployment rates, worsening inflation and water shortages.
The list of grievances is topped by the electricity crisis, which has forced the country's 60 million people to endure outages of up to 12 hours a day.
"The energy crisis is an existential threat to our economy and social fabric," said Ramaphosa.
Scheduled blackouts, known as loadshedding, have been imposed to help the country's creaking coal-generated power system survive in the face of overwhelming demand.
"Our state is already in a state of disaster: everything is broken," said Deena Bosch, 63, who organised a protest ahead of the address.
The speech was delivered in Cape Town city hall, as the parliament building -- gutted during in an arson attack 13 months ago -- is yet to be repaired.
Ramaphosa, 70, came into office five years ago as a reformer promising a "new dawn" after the graft and scandal-stained tenure of former president Jacob Zuma.
But the record outages, wreaking havoc on the economy which is now expected to grow by a dismal 0.3 percent this year from 2.5 percent last year, have dented his reputation.
A government minister estimated earlier this week that the power cuts are costing the economy one billion rand ($57 million) a day.
The crisis is chipping away at Ramaphosa's chances of securing a second term after next year's elections.
Ann Bernstein of the Centre for Development and Enterprise, a South African think tank, said: "Sadly, the notion of the current president as a reformer is no longer credible, in fact it is a mirage."
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