South Africa’s state-owned power supplier Eskom is facing a critical energy crisis, forcing President Cyril Ramaphosa to abandon his trip to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday and return home to oversee an end to the Stage 6 power crisis.
Ramaphosa said resolving the energy crisis soon was paramount to ensure that the economic and investment potential of the country was realised.
The president had flown from the United States to Britain to attend Queen Elizabeth II’s State Funeral Service in London on Monday, and after consultations with his officials, decided to return home as a matter of urgency to oversee the crisis.
This, as South Africa was plunged into Stage 6 load shedding for the second time this year, prompting the president to abandon his international trip to attend the UNGA where he was scheduled to speak on Tuesday.
“Solving the electricity crisis is necessary if we are to realise the potential of our economy. In 2018, we launched an ambitious investment drive to raise US$100 billion in new investments over five years,” Ramaphosa said.
He added: “To date, and with still have a year to go, we have raised more than 90 percent of that amount in commitments from both domestic and foreign investors.”
He noted that around US$22 billion “has already flowed into the economy, opening new factories, expanding production lines, and creating new jobs.”
The current power crisis was a reminder of “how unstable our ageing power stations are”, he said, adding that there was need for greater urgency to implement the measures he announced in July to bring stability to the grid by encouraging private power investors to contribute to the electricity grid.
NM/jn/APA