I told you so: Load shedding is coming back, says Maimane

Build One SA (Bosa) leader Mmusi Maimane said he was not surprised that electricity blackouts were back with a bang in the City of Johannesburg.

Goodbye elections, hello load reduction

Maimane said the ANC had tried to ensure that the lights were on for as long as possible over the weeks in which political parties were putting all their efforts into campaigning for votes.

ALSO READ: City Power introduces independent power producers as it battles load shedding

On the weekend, City Power said it would be initiating “load reduction” in different parts of Johannesburg where demand is high.

“City Power will begin load reduction measures on Monday, 10 June 2024, to address the critical electricity consumption levels in Johannesburg,” said the City Power in a tweet.

However, Maimane said he expects the rest of the country to be plunged into darkness as well.

“We are going into a heavy winter of increased demand which means load shedding is going to be a feature,” he said.

Maimane criticized the planned load reduction in Johannesburg. He said they would be targeted at the poor.

He said now that elections are over, the ANC was no longer able to keep the floodgates of load shedding closed.

“Why did they not have this load reduction policy during elections? This load reduction is done where their poor people who are a constituency of the ANC, they would not have done this during elections,” Maimane said.

He said the current coalition negotiations among different parties should include a solution to South Africa’s power crisis. Different political parties are locked in talks to form a Government of National Unity (GNU).

“What we need to realize as South Africans is that even this bad notion of a GNU, we must be clear that we must have a sustainable plan for Eskom,” he said.

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Maimane said the return of power blackouts in Johannesburg was serious even though it had become comical during election time when jokes were made about the abundant supply of electricity which came as a surprise to most South Africans.

“This is not a time to say I told you or I did not tell you so whatever the government does in the seventh administration it must be about load shedding being a thing of the past,” he said.