Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said that the City of Cape Town will have to take matters into their own hands if they wish to halt the damage caused by Eskom’s “monopoly over generation” following the latest loadshedding announcement.
In the next two weeks, the City will publish documents detailing its upcoming procurement of power from independent power producers (IPPs).
“The only way for us to provide reliable and affordable electricity to our residents is to source it from elsewhere,” says Hill-Lewis.
He said that the urgency of the matter can’t be overstated, especially in light of Eskom’s decision to implement stage 2 loadshedding.
“While the City is proud to be able to protect its electricity customers from one stage of loadshedding, from 11h00 to 22h00 today, while further protection measures will communicated. It should never be forgotten that any loadshedding comes at a significant cost for South Africans.
“Load-shedding means real businesses failing. Load-shedding means jobs being lost. Load-shedding makes the possibility of meaningful economic recovery ever more remote,” Hill Lewis adds.
The mayor went on to say that despite the economic devastation caused by load-shedding and the unreliability of its power supply, Eskom is pressing ahead with an application to Nersa to hike the price of electricity by 20,5% from 1 April 2022.
He expressed that he made it clear to Eskom and to Nersa that the planned increase is unfair, unjust, and unaffordable, while over 30 000 Capetonians signed a petition over the course of one weekend, asking Nersa to disallow the increase.
“Bringing IPPs onto the grid, through the tendering process, is a crucial step in ending load-shedding over time. The economic effects of a reliable power supply in Cape Town will mean more profitable businesses and more job opportunities. Every Capetonian will benefit.
“We hope that other spheres of government will respect our constitutional mandate to deliver electricity to our residents, and not stand in our way of making Cape Town the first load-shedding-free municipality in South Africa,” Hill-Lewis maintains.
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Picture: Supplied