- South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has said that after more than a decade of electricity shortages, South Africans are right to feel frustrated and angry.
- The president assured the nation that government has already taken several important actions to address the shortfall in electricity supply and in the coming days, a comprehensive set of actions will be announced to achieve much faster progress in tackling load shedding.
- The president was communicating his views in a weekly letter to the nation released yesterday.
“While load shedding appears to worsen, the reality is that we have already taken several important actions to address the shortfall in electricity supply. Our immediate priority is to stabilise the electricity system. As the system recovers and generation capacity is restored, Eskom will be able to reduce load shedding to lower stages,” the president said.
On Saturday, Eskom reported that it had 4597MW on planned maintenance, while another 16457MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns. Eskom’s total generation capcity is 44000MW. This means that roughly half of the state owned energy utiltity’s generation capacity is out of service. Loadshedding in the country is severe and ongoing; Stage 4 loadshedding will have to be implemented at 05:00 – 00:00 on Monday. Loadshedding will then be reduced to Stage 2 from midnight until 05:00 on Tuesday. This loadshedding sequence is likely to be repeated throughout the week said the beleaguered utilty. Read more: Power Alert 1 – 09 July 2022
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“There is no reason why a country like ours – with the skills, capabilities and resources we have at our disposal – should have to endure a shortage of electricity,” said Ramaphosa. “Over the past two weeks, we have been working with the relevant Ministers and senior officials on a range of additional measures to accelerate all efforts to increase our electricity supply. The message is clear: this is no time for business as usual. We need to act boldly to make load shedding a thing of the past”.
Significantly the president announced that government will soon be completing the detailed work and consultations needed to finalise these further measures. “We will then, in the coming days, be able to announce a comprehensive set of actions to achieve much faster progress in tackling load shedding,” said Ramaphosa.
Link to Ramaphosa’s full letter HERE
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
