South Africa’s energy crisis will be resolved by 2024 as the government is actively ramping up energy generation across the country, said President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The South African leader made this statement on the sidelines of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) national working committee (NWC) meeting at the Turffontein racecourse, Johannesburg, Gauteng province.
“Energy has been a great drawback to us but we are working on it and we are certain that by 2024, the energy crisis will be over as we are ramping up more and more generation of energy," he said, adding: "And now we have to attend to the transmission so government is not sleeping on the job, government is busy."
According to the president, the rolling blackouts that have plagued the country in recent years have had far-reaching negative effects on every sector of the economy.
However, he added, the measures put in place by the government to address the energy crisis and reduce the intensity of load shedding began to bring concrete results.
South Africa, one of the most developed states on the continent, is currently facing a severe energy crisis that threatens to undermine the country's economic development.
Since 2008, the state utility Eskom started to impose daily scheduled blackouts, known as load-shedding, to safeguard the grid whenever demand exceeds supply. Since early 2023, these blackouts have intensified, with regular outages lasting up to 12 hours a day. However, the power outages have recently been reduced to about two hours a day.