President Cyril Ramaphosa reportedly heading back to SA

What?! President Cyril Ramaphosa is reportedly heading back to South Africa on Monday to deal with the stage six rolling blackouts currently being implemented by Eskom.

PRESIDENT CYRIL RAMAPHOSA HAS CANCELLED THE SECOND HALF OF TRIP

It seems Cyril has abandoned the second leg of his United States trip to return home.

According to a report by Daily Maverick, his decision follows an urgent virtual meeting that he called with all the relevant Cabinet ministers and senior officials on Sunday, 18 September.

This comes after growing political pressure for Cyril to return to South Africa to deal with the power crisis as the country has plunged to Stage 6 load shedding while the power utility is seeking to raise tariffs by 32%.

The power utility announced that it would be implementing Stage 6 load shedding for the weekend after some electricity-generating units tripped.

IT IS BELIEVED HE WILL COME AND DEAL WITH THE ESKOM CRISIS

The DA shadow minister of minerals and energy, Kevin Mileham, has called for Cyril to return from his visit to the US and UK to address the Eskom crisis.

ALSO READ: Stage 6 load shedding for MONDAY – UPDATED schedule here

Mileham said the load shedding problem was one stage away from a total grid collapse.

“Over the past few weeks, Ramaphosa has ignored several DA warnings that his Energy Response Plan had veered off the track due to an ineffective National Electricity Crisis Committee (NECC),” Mileham said.

He said Eskom’s plant performance has continued to deteriorate substantially in the past week, confirming a power plant maintenance plan that is in crisis.

ALSO READ: Is this the end of load shedding? Five things you need to know about the family meeting

“Now that it has become clear that sub-contracting the implementation of the Energy Response Plan to his NECC was a bad idea to begin with and little traction has been made, Ramaphosa should now take active control of the implementation process and ensure timely delivery of the plan’s short-term targets to plug the electricity supply gap.
“Better still, as we have repeatedly said, declare a ring-fenced state of disaster around the beleaguered entity,” Mileham said.

WHAT HAPPEN TO ALL THE PLANS?

Mileham further pointed out that almost two months after the announcement of the plan, the country is still in the dark on:

• Recruitment or rehiring of experienced former Eskom staff (engineers, power station managers);
• Procurement of electricity from neighbouring countries (just an admission that negotiations are ongoing);
• The plan to eliminate sabotage, theft and fraud at Eskom; and
• National Treasury’s plan to expand tax incentives for residential and commercial installations – which is still pending.

ALSO READ: Eskom targets a MASSIVE increase for next year – more info here

The DA has called for the prioritisation of the recruitment of experienced engineers and electricity experts to reverse the electricity crisis.

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