‘Load shedding is here to stay’ – Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned that load shedding is here to stay, adding that while there is no quick fix for the deliberate power cuts, “real progress is being made”.

Ramaphosa’s comments to ease the blow will not sit well with South Africans, as the country continues to suffer with chronic load shedding, with no indication when the blackouts would end.

The president was addressing the nation during his weekly newsletter “From the Desk of the President” on Monday.

No end to load shedding

Ramaphosa said load shedding will not be ending anytime soon.

“Given the unpredictable performance of Eskom’s fleet of coal-fired power stations, we will not be able to eliminate load shedding in the short term. This is the unfortunate reality of our situation, which has had a long history.”

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Angry South Africans

The president said he knows South Africans are angry about load shedding.

“For every person living in this country, the past two weeks of load shedding have been extremely frustrating and challenging. The widespread public anger is wholly justified. Load shedding is beyond an inconvenience. It has dire consequences for nearly every part of our society from education to public safety to the provision of health services.”

“There is a sense of despair that the situation does not seem to be improving and that there appears to be no end in sight to this crisis,” he said.

Solutions

Ramaphosa said the immediate term, however, is to reduce the frequency and severity of load shedding by addressing power station breakdowns.

“To address the immediate energy shortfall, Eskom has since July worked on procuring emergency power, and in the last week launched power purchase programmes for 1 000 megawatts of emergency capacity from companies with existing generation capacity and to secure imports from neighbouring countries,” Ramaphosa added.

Ramaphosa said government is giving close attention to the skills, experience and capabilities of the Eskom leadership to ensure that the company has the best people at all levels of the organisation.

Don’t waste electrity

He has urged South Africans to use electricity sparingly.

“While we work to increase the supply of electricity, we must increase efforts to reduce demand, particularly at peak times. We must come together as citizens to alleviate the pressure on the national grid.”

“This means using electricity sparingly, reporting illegal connections and paying for the electricity we use. Businesses, households and government departments that owe Eskom must pay up so that Eskom is better able to undertake the critical maintenance that is needed to keep the lights,” Ramaphosa said.

Ramaphosa said South Africans must not give up hope.

“As we continue to experience load shedding, there is a great temptation to give up hope that we will ever solve this problem. Yet, if we look just beyond the most immediate crisis, there are real signs of progress and good reasons to be optimistic,” Ramaphosa said.

Read his full letter here.

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