Western Cape Prime Minister Alan Winde.
Samantha Lee-Jacobs, Popular Post
- The Western Cape government has threatened to start an intergovernmental dispute.
- Prime Minister Alan Winde says he has written to President Cyril Ramaphosa asking the national government to take the energy crisis seriously.
- Ramaphosa’s spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, told News24 that the president is taking the energy crisis seriously.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office says it is taking the energy crisis seriously.
This after Western Cape Premier Alan Winde wrote to Ramaphosa to say that the national government should take the energy crisis more seriously and show that it was urgently tackling the problem.
“It is causing terrible damage to our economy and infringing on the fundamental rights of our citizens.
“The silence of the national government towards its citizens and the other spheres of government that could be its allies in facing this crisis is deafening,” the prime minister said in a statement.
“The national government, since the crisis arose, has not tried to provide our provincial government with [nor, as far as I am aware, other provincial governments and the local sphere of government] with relevant factual information about the scope of the crisis, its possible impact in the short, medium and long term, or their plans to address it,” Winde added.
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South Africa has experienced daily load cuts this year, compared to no load cuts during the same period in 2022. It was implemented every day in November and December.
Eskom announced last week that the stage 6 load shedding would continue until further notice.
Winde has requested a response from the president by next Friday.
If Ramaphosa does not respond, the provincial government said it may consider starting an intergovernmental dispute.
Ramaphosa spokesman Vincent Magwenya told News24: “The president is taking the energy crisis seriously, as we have communicated on numerous occasions, including the work he [the] The National Energy Crisis Committee has been doing to date.”
Meanwhile, high-profile lawyers, leaders and major groups have issued a demand letter to Eskom’s CEO Andre de Ruyter and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.
They are demanding that load shedding be stopped effective immediately, and if not, an explanation as to why the government failed to stop it.
