Thousands won’t have power when Ramaphosa speaks on energy crisis tonight

While President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged to fix South Africa’s energy crisis in his last State of the Nation Address (Sona) a year later thousands will not be able to watch his latest speech.

Ramaphosa will announce the Sona on Thursday. With the country currently experiencing Eskom’s Stage 2 of load shedding.

The president spent a large chunk of his speech last year on power woes, including what his government was doing to fix the issue.

Ongoing power cuts

Despite his promises the country experienced Stage 8 load shedding and week long periods of load shedding.

Even as he takes the podium on Thursday, certain areas of the country will be left in the dark.

In Gauteng according to City Power, the following areas will be without power for the period of Sona, between 6pm and 10pm.

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Blocks 11 and 12 will be off between 6pm and 8:30pm, while blocks 13 and 14 will be off between 8pm and 10:30pm.

That is a total of 208 suburbs including, Clearwater, Honeydew, Bryanston North and North East, and South Hills in blocks 11 and 12.

While other areas affected in blocks 13 and 14 include Johannesburg CBD, Killarney, Rosebank, Parktown Est, North and North East.

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According to Eskom these are some of the areas that will be without power for the period of Sona, between 6pm and 10pm:

Blue Hills A.H, Diepsloot West Extension 7, Kyalami Extension 14, Cosmo City, Dobsonville, Zola and Zondi.

Blocks 3 and 15 will be off between 6pm and 8:30pm, while blocks 4 and 16 will be off between 8pm and 10:30pm.

Deep diving into Eskom’s load shedding schedule for the City of Johannesburg found over 800 suburbs could be in the dark during the address. It is worth noting that City Power took over parts of the City’s load shedding schedule last year and some of the suburbs listed may now fall under City Power.

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Sona 2023

In the previous Sona, Ramaphosa acknowledged that South Africans wanted assurity to when load shedding would end.

“Our most immediate task is to dramatically reduce the severity of load shedding in the coming months and ultimately end load shedding altogether,” said Ramaphosa.

While he did not provide an answer or rather a direct estimate to when the solution of the energy crisis would be solved, he reiterated the five tiered plan he announced in July 2022, to solve the power issue.

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The first step in the plan included enhancing reliability of the current power supply and fix the issues with Eskom’s coal-fired power stations. Secondly, facilitating and expediting private investments in power generation capacity.

Thirdly, speeding up the process of acquiring new capacity from renewable sources, gas, and battery storage. Fourthly, encouraging households and businesses to invest in rooftop solar energy systems. And, lastly, implementing significant changes in the electricity industry to ensure sustainable energy in the long run.

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