Durban - There’s been mixed reaction to the South African government's plan to tackle the country's electricity crisis.
On Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa outlined measures to address the rolling blackouts experienced in recent months.
He detailed sweeping plans including improving the performance of Eskom's existing fleet of power stations, acceleration of the procurement of generation capacity, increasing private investment in generation capacity, solar energy investment, and transformation of the electricity sector for future sustainability.
Ramaphosa also urged citizens to install solar power panels and avoid connecting electricity illegally.
Energy analyst, Chris Yelland, said he was impressed with the comprehensive message and plan of action.
"Bringing an end to load shedding with these plans is most definitely possible, in a national priority project," he tweeted.
Well I am deeply impressed with the comprehensive message and plan of action by @PresidencyZA @CyrilRamaphosa 👏👏👏
— Chris Yelland (@chrisyelland) July 25, 2022
Bringing an end to loadshedding with these plans is most definitely possible, in a national priority project.
However, energy expert Ted Blom, found the speech confusing and said he needed time before commenting.
"Instead of a knee-jerk reaction. I first want to understand what seemed like a very confusing and contradictory speech," Blom told IOL.
According to the DA, government's energy plan is "straight of our the DA playbook".
"While the DA welcomes the steps taken by the President to address the energy crisis, we still find it unacceptable that it took this long to take action. The DA has, for years and as recently as May, consistently called for the opening up of the grid to IPPs through red tape reduction and increased private sector investment in the electricity sector," the party's Kevin Mileham said.
He said now that an energy plan to address the electricity crisis had been announced, the DA will be launching an Energy Plan Implementation Tracker to keep Ramaphosa’s government honest on project implementation and red tape reduction milestones.
"The tracker will particularly hold the President accountable on the commitments made to add new generation capacity," he added.
IOL