Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says he is cautiously optimistic about President Cyril Ramaphosa’s plans to fix the country’s energy crisis.
The Mayor says the President’s plan again too heavily focuses on addressing challenges at Eskom to tackle loadshedding.
Audio PlayerHill-Lewis says allowing municipalities to procure their own power is still the most effective and immediate way to end the country’s electricity supply challenges.
He says the City of Cape Town will continue to move forward with its plans to become more independent of Eskom and end loadshedding over time.
Hill-Lewis also notes that many of the steps announced by the President are in line with what has been proposed by energy experts and economists and included in the 10-point plan to end loadshedding, proposed to Ramaphosa two weeks ago.
He reiterates that the fundamental and systemic problems at Eskom will not be solved overnight.
Hill-Lewis also welcomed the scrapping of the arbitrary 100MW licensing threshold for private energy generation.
Read Hill-Lewis’ full statement here.
Related articles:
- Cape Town businesses urged to help end loadshedding.
- IN FULL: Ramaphosa outlines his #EnergyActionPlan.
I’m cautiously optimistic about some of the steps announced by President Ramaphosa last night.
Doubling down on Eskom as the solution to the power crisis (when it is, in fact, a cause) is a risk.
CT will keep working towards independence from Eskom. https://t.co/RNm89o10F3
— Geordin Hill-Lewis (@geordinhl) July 26, 2022
