Moves towards declaring South Africa’s 15-year-old power crisis as a State of National Disaster has raised more anxiety than the recent tiger escapes in Gauteng. These fears are well-founded, given the high levels of corruption and downright absurdity that accompanied the Covid declaration. Riding this tiger’s tail without similar malfeasance and misadventures will require not only a tightly framed set of interventions but also extreme transparency and ongoing monitoring.