President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government should invest in building new power plants to stop rolling blackouts that have left state-owned power utility Eskom unable to supply adequate electricity for months now, South African Community Party (SACP) national spokesperson Alex Mashilo said on Sunday.
Speaking during the annual Che Guevara memorial lecture in Mahikeng in North West province, Mashilo said the government has to invest in new power generation capacity “and it has to plan this investment well in advance.”
“It has to build new power stations to supply people with electricity. We cannot rely on profit-driven interests to meet the needs of the people as far as electricity is concerned,” the official said.
He noted that while South Africa currently had over 12 million cars, the government should begin to plan for a situation where the majority of these would be electric vehicles by 2030 in line with global trends.
“Where are we going to get the power to feed these vehicles?”
The SACP – alongside the Congress of the South African Trade Unions – is in a three-partner alliance with the ruling African National Congress.
Guevara, an Argentinean doctor, is remembered as a political activist who dedicated his life to fighting colonialism in different countries of South America and Africa.
NM/jn/APA