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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has decided against attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, pointing out that his presence in the country was needed when the country was facing acute energy crisis
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has decided against attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, pointing out that his presence in the country was needed when the country was facing an acute energy crisis. For quite some time, South Africa has been facing record blackouts due to troubles at state-owned power utility Eskom and shut down of other plants for maintenance.
The President was due to lead a government delegation to the WEF event in the Swiss Alps next week. Currently, the President is convening a meeting with leaders of political parties represented in parliament, NECCOM (National Energy Crisis Committee) and the Eskom board.
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Eskom’s failure to keep pace with demand and maintain its ageing coal power infrastructure has been a major concern. The outages have reached new extremes over the past 12 months. Eskom has said that it would implement blackouts of up to nearly 12 hours a day until further notice. A string of generators broke down incurring heavy losses to the country. Both industry and households are agitated against the frequent power cuts. The opposition parties, particularly the main one- the Democratic Alliance- called on South Africans to join a protest march to voice their anger at the situation, indicating the central stage power crisis has taken in the political landscape.
