South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has decided to cancel his working trip in Davos, Switzerland, as the country’s energy crises worsen, his spokesman said on Sunday, reported by The BBC.
Ramaphosa was set to lead the South African team at the 53rd Annual World Economic Forum conference, which begins on Monday, where he was expected to promote South Africa as an investment destination of choice. But now he will instead remain home to hold talks with Eskom and political leaders said presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya. The WEF meeting will run through to Friday.
“Due to the ongoing energy crisis, President @CyrilRamaphosa has canceled his working visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos,” the South African presidential spokesman wrote on Twitter.
“Currently the President is convening a meeting with leaders of political parties represented in parliament, NECCOM (National Energy Crisis Committee), and the Eskom board.”
South Africa has reeled with load shedding every day this year, as compared to no load shedding during the same period last year. There was load shedding almost every day in November and December.
Last Wednesday, Eskom announced that Stage 6 load shedding would run continuously until further notice, with no indication when it would be scaling back. It said that it would implement blackouts of up to nearly 12 hours a day after a string of generators broke down.
The power outages have cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars in lost output, disrupting commerce and industry and angering the population.
On Saturday, the main South African opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, called on the people to join a protest march to “voice their anger” at the situation.
Several political leaders and major groups have warned that they have no other choice but to take the government, Eskom, and the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) to court over the load-shedding crisis.
