South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Thursday will be scrutinized by citizens who will be watching his annual State of the Nation Address to hear his plans to tackle power cuts that since mid-2022 have lasted up to 12-hours each day.
Experts say the record outages have piled misery on a population of 60 million people that are already battling high unemployment, poverty, rampant crime, and rising costs of living.
Ramaphosa Wednesday spoke on the impact of the energy crisis while addressing the three-day Investing in African Mining Indaba conference, that was held in Cape Town.
“The electricity crisis on its own has had a huge impact on the mining industry as it has on other industries,” said Ramaphosa.
“Six months ago, we announced the national Energy Action Plan to improve the performance of our existing power stations and to add new generation capacity to the grid as quickly as possible,” he added.
Efforts by Ramaphosa’s administration have been futile, as citizens said the power cuts are worsening.
Mariam Martin, an entrepreneur based in Cape Town said her business has been compromised by the energy crisis.
“Whilst South Africa has been experiencing load shedding, it has seriously compromised our business and as a result we have been forced to get alternative ways to ensure that we have business continuity,” said Martin.
“We have had to invest significantly in getting a battery and inverter system to ensure that we have continuity with our business,” she added.
Lloyd Mbanjana, an aspiring fashion designer, said Ramaphosa’s government has failed the nation’s youth.
“I have a dream of being a fashion designer and I feel like the loadshedding has been affecting us for a long time now,” said Mbanjana.
“I feel like the government has failed us somehow, because as the youth we have been struggling for a long time now,” he added.
Some information in this report came from VOA’s Vicky Stark and Agence France-Presse.
