Pretoria – The Cabinet meeting led by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday to look into different issues, chief among them them electricity crisis bedevilling South Africa has “expressed regret” over the blackouts.
Cabinet spokesperson Phumla Williams said the executive heard a briefing presented by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan on the capacity of Eskom.
“Cabinet expressed regret that intermittent load shedding is happening at the time when government is vigorously engaged with the interventions announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in July 2022 to overcome the surmountable energy crisis facing the country,” Williams said.
“Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan today presented a briefing on the capacity of Eskom and a progress report from the Technical Committee of the National Energy Crisis Committee.”
She said the Cabinet held its scheduled virtual meeting on Wednesday to discuss a number of pertinent issues that will be outlined in the comprehensive Cabinet Statement to be released “at a later stage”.
“Cabinet also discussed the problem of load shedding that has over the past week disrupted the economic activities of businesses and inconvenienced households in the country,” Williams said.
In the press statement, Williams said the Cabinet was still deliberating on the reports, and would soon provide “a comprehensive feedback to the South African public”.
“Meanwhile, Cabinet remains committed to resolving the issue of energy security in the country and welcomes the concerted efforts being made by government and stakeholders to find a permanent solution to end load-shedding,” Williams said.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Ramaphosa had cut short his working visits to the US and the UK following growing calls for him to deal with South Africa’s deepening power crisis.
Ramaphosa met President Joe Biden in Washington for bilateral talks last week, before flying to London to attend the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, on Monday.
Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said on Monday morning: “The president will no longer be travelling to New York from London. Instead, he will head home to deal with the current Stage 6 load shedding.”
Load shedding was downgraded to Stage 5 earlier this week, Eskom said on Monday, after implementing Stage 6 on Sunday morning.
IOL