President Cyril Ramaphosa has said there is no quick fix to end loadshedding in the country, however, slow but real progress is being made.
This comes after Eskom has continuously implemented stages 5, 4, and 3 of load shedding in two weeks.
“Loadshedding is beyond an inconvenience. It has dire consequences for nearly every part of our society from education to public safety to the provision of health services. Large and small businesses alike are losing money and the energy crisis is endangering investment and our economic recovery.” Says President Cyril Ramaphosa
Furthermore, the president said the country should remain hopeful as the government has been making real progress in the implementation of other additional actions since July. And has since launched power purchase programmes for 1,000 megawatts of emergency capacity from companies with existing generation capacity and has also secured imports from neighbouring countries.
However, Eskom is also implementing measures to improve plant performance until new generation power projects are brought online. The energy facility is looking to address the poor quality of coal, which often leads to plant breakdowns.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has also urged citizens to come together to alleviate the pressure regarding loadshedding.
This means using electricity sparingly, reporting illegal connections, and paying for the electricity we use. Businesses, households, and government departments that owe Eskom must pay up so that Eskom is better able to undertake the critical maintenance that is needed to keep the lights.
Recently Eskom reached its “100th day of blackouts,” and according to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Eskom has cut 2 276 gigawatt hours of electricity in 2022 versus the current record of 2 521 gigawatt-hours in 2021.
Also, recent data by Stats SA reported that the country’s gross domestic product decreased by 0.7% in the second quarter of 2022 and the cause of this decline was due to rolling blackouts which weakened the economic output.
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Picture: Cape town Etc {Gallery}