Cape Town – In the face of another load shedding crisis, President Cyril Ramaphosa must act to allow municipalities to procure power from Independent Power Producers (IPPs), says Western Cape Premier Alan Winde.
"Today’s sudden load shedding is the last straw. President Cyril Ramaphosa must instruct his minister to authorise municipalities to procure power from 1-10MW energy systems, which will bring on line new generation capacity," Winde said in a statement on Wednesday.
"The return of load shedding, despite assurances it wouldn't happen from Eskom, is set against the backdrop of the national fiscus forking out billions of rand to bail out the utility.
"The immediate consequence is that my provincial government has to go through the painful process of cutting spending on vital services like our schools, hospitals and clinics to finance this. And for what? More load shedding.
"It is time for the national government to stop moving from disaster to disaster by enabling Eskom's failures with financial lifelines that have no impact on their ability to keep generating the power required to keep our economy afloat.
"The world has recognised the need for clean, renewable energy, and any limits imposed on making use of alternative energy sources now will have severely negative impacts for us in the years to come."