Ramaphosa’s speech hit by load-shedding at local government summit

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address at the local government summit in Boksburg, which focused on practical solutions to challenges at local government level, was briefly disturbed by load-shedding on Wednesday.

Ramaphosa was well into his address when the lights went out but came back quickly.

He used the moment to make light of the situation and to address Eskom’s ongoing energy crisis.

Ramaphosa was in the middle of telling the gathering, which included mayors, councillors and NGOs: “The people in leadership have often butted heads among themselves when they start differing, and even fighting like there is no tomorrow.

“Fighting that at times results in outright violence, where people die, and we therefore need to redefine the way…”

It was at this point the lights went out.

Ramaphosa laughed and said, “I am sorry.”

The audience laughed and applauded.

“I was being given lessons on how to deal with load-shedding,” he said.

“I must say I am sorry about that. This continues to be our biggest challenge. I think it affects you at local level because you distribute electricity and when it does this [a power outage], your customers lose businesses.

“It disrupts the livelihoods of our residents and people lose confidence in us.”

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