Premier Alan Winde to request a meeting with the President over energy crisis.

Energy crisis could be declared a national disaster. This is according to President Cyril Ramaphosa, who stated that the declaration will be similar to the state of disaster that was in effect with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ramaphosa says work is already underway within government “to establish whether the legal requirements for the declaration of a national state of disaster are met.

Currently, the country is on stage 4 load shedding and the system is still under pressure.

He says the imposition of the state of disaster will be at the top of the list of the cabinet’s lekgotla which will take place tomorrow.

Meanwhile Western Cape’s Premier Alan Winde said that he is to request a meeting with the President over energy crisis.

This is after he convened another meeting of the Western Cape Energy Council on Friday to receive an update on efforts to reduce the impact of loadshedding in the province.

The Premier  once again reiterated, “The Council is looking at all options to make the Western Cape more energy resilient and to, over time, for us to become independent of Eskom.”

He said, “The Council is looking at this crisis and identifying how to prioritise our responses as a provincial government. Short, medium, and long-term measures, as well as emergency interventions for 2023 were, discussed at the Energy Council meeting to ameliorate loadshedding. This work will inform immediate budget discussions and determinations for the Western Cape government’s 2023/24 financial year which begins in April 2023. Further announcements will be made shortly on our plans, in particular for 2023.

Done by: Alungile Njemla