On Thursday, South Africa’s national power supplier, Eskom, announced that is once again implementing loadshedding. The utility company announced that it will be implemented state 2 loadshedding from Thursday (14 January) at 12:00 until Sunday (17 January).
Eskom has been plagued with generating capacity issues since the start of the Zuma Presidency, it does not seem likely that these issues will be resolved in the near future. Eskom’s CEO, Andre De Ruyter, has previously stated that load-shedding will be around for a good while into the future. This is evident in a table tweeted by energy expert, Chris Yelland, earlier today. In the table Eskom indicates that the risk of load shedding is code Red for the next three weeks. Code Red meaning that loadshedding is highly likely.
What is clear is that Eskom is in dire need of practical solutions to the issue of generating capacity, South Africa cannot afford to have Eskom fail as it is the company on which bulk of the economy relies for its energy needs. It is on this backdrop that the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has decided to launch a campaign which aims to bring #PowerToThePeople. The campaign seeks to generate enough pressure, with the support of South Africans, to have its proposals to bring loadshedding to an end to the attention of the Minister of Energy, Gwede Manatashe.
When asked about the recently launched campaign the IRR’s Head of Strategic Initiatives, Hermann Pretorius, said, “The great frustration with the seemingly endless episodes of rolling blackouts is the simplicity and practicality of solutions that could put an end to this destructive nonsense once and for all. This is why our campaign presents a simple set of solutions that could have almost immediate and drastic effects. South Africans really need to demand better from government – in this regard, the IRR will not hesitate to play a leading role.”
You can add your voice to the IRR’s campaign by clicking this link.