Cape town mayor addressed power cuts and infrastructure issues

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis recently held a council meeting at the Cape Town Civic Centre, addressing various issues including load shedding, housing and the City’s stance on running an independent city

In terms of load shedding and hill-Lewis said that many South Africans are struggling with power cuts and residents experiencing housing issues.

He said that the country has had load-shed almost every second day this year.

According to Hill-Lewis, the Energy Minister cautioned that these power cuts were not sustainable and that, without a reliable electricity supply, the economy will collapse. He added  that Top economists are warning that the contraction of the economy caused by load-shedding will put South Africa back into recession, resulting in further job losses and increasing poverty.

“ Here, in Cape Town, there is light despite all the darkness. Between February and September this year, City of Cape Town customers were protected from more than 1 100 hours of Eskom's 1 900 hours of load-shedding. For 230 of those hours, we had no load-shedding at all, while the rest of the country had load-shedding”.

The Cape Town Mayor stated that the lack of state capacity elsewhere in the country is beginning to show in terrifyingly stark terms. He said that an example would be Gauteng, who is currently experiencing devastating water crisis due to what he says, corruption and chronic underinvestment in infrastructure.

The Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis also tackled infrastructure issues, whereby be announced that the municipality, over the past five years, Invested R4,1 billion in water infrastructure and building water security,

The Mayor highlighted a number of areas where the National Government could assist with reforms that will help simplify the supply chain process, including: Geordin Hill-Lewis told the council, devolution does not mean secession. He said that city officials should strive for a better governance.