President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to cancel a working trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland during the country’s energy crisis has sparked debate.
Ramaphosa was set to attend the prestigious summit in an effort to promote South Africa as an investment destination, but the message may have been harder to deliver with the country battling increasing rolling blackouts.
Power utility Eskom announced indefinite stage 6 load-shedding last week, days before the announcement of an 18.65% increase in the price of electricity.
The worsening state of power generation has cost the economy billions and led to calls for a national shutdown.
Citizens have asked Ramaphosa to at the very least show his government is taking the issue seriously, despite him saying his “hands are tied” about the price increases.
“At this stage the president cannot interfere with that process. It is a statutory process the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has under way. Eskom does need the money and the president is mindful of the severity of consumers paying more for electricity they do not have,” Magwenya said of Nersa’s decision.
In September last year, Ramaphosa cut short his trip to the US and UK to address the electricity crisis.
While some said cancelling the Davos trip showed Ramaphosa was leading through the crisis, others said he was simply saving face and avoiding embarrassment at the summit. Many questioned what good cancelling his trip last year did.
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President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to cancel a working trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland during the country’s energy crisis has sparked debate.
Ramaphosa was set to attend the prestigious summit in an effort to promote South Africa as an investment destination, but the message may have been harder to deliver with the country battling increasing rolling blackouts.
Power utility Eskom announced indefinite stage 6 load-shedding last week, days before the announcement of an 18.65% increase in the price of electricity.
The worsening state of power generation has cost the economy billions and led to calls for a national shutdown.
Citizens have asked Ramaphosa to at the very least show his government is taking the issue seriously, despite him saying his “hands are tied” about the price increases.
“At this stage the president cannot interfere with that process. It is a statutory process the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has under way. Eskom does need the money and the president is mindful of the severity of consumers paying more for electricity they do not have,” Magwenya said of Nersa’s decision.
In September last year, Ramaphosa cut short his trip to the US and UK to address the electricity crisis.
While some said cancelling the Davos trip showed Ramaphosa was leading through the crisis, others said he was simply saving face and avoiding embarrassment at the summit. Many questioned what good cancelling his trip last year did.
Speaking to TimesLIVE, ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said cancelling the trip won’t make a difference.
“We are not fools. President Ramaphosa has been ‘solving’ Eskom wars since December 2014. We remember how many times he cancelled international trips, including a trip to a UN summit. But this does not solve the power crisis. The more he communicates about solving Eskom’s problems, the worse it gets.
“What we can appreciate as a country is that he saved us millions by cancelling the trip but it does not mean the president will solve the energy crisis.”
DA MP Ghaleb Cachalia said “the president has in the past 12 years been talking tough about issues at Eskom. He has cancelled trips to attend to the crisis and instituted advisory boards and the net result of that has been stage 6 load-shedding”.
TimesLIVE
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