ANC55: Load shedding crisis is being attended to ‘urgently’, says Ramaphosa

ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday told party delegates that government is implementing “urgent measures” to curb power cuts.

SA’s electricity crisis

Power utility Eskom reverted to stage 6 blackouts on Friday, the same day that the country observed the Day of Reconciliation holiday.

The beleaguered president presented a 31-page-long political report to the conference on Friday afternoon.

Earlier, he faced a hostile plenary as delegates, mostly from KwaZulu-Natal, heckled him while praising ex-president Jacob Zuma.

WATCH: ANC KZN delegates cheer for Zuma, heckle Ramaphosa at conference

Ramaphosa said additional power was being procured to deal with load shedding.

“Additional power is being imported through Southern African Poll, Eskom has also launched a programme to purchase power from entities with existing generation capacity.

“These and other urgent measures will steadily reduce the frequency and severity of load shedding and ultimately end it.

“At the same time, these measures will reshape the country’s electricity industry and ensure energy security into the future,” he said.

So far, said Ramaphosa, renewable energy efforts were expected to bring in more than
9000 wind and solar power to the grid.

“Significantly, more generating capacity is due to come online in the next rounds of the programme.”

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