Johannesburg - President Cyril Ramaphosa has been critisised for his intention to visit Egypt on an official working trip at the time that South Africa is battling to keep the lights on and floods are wreaking havoc.
Eskom announced on Monday evening that South African had entered Stage 6 of load shedding, which means the blackouts will be more frequent and affect a lot more people.
In addition to this, the rain has been falling incessantly, causing floods and destroying people's homes as they also battle the cold and blackouts.
However,a message from the Presidency that Ramaphosa would be visiting Egypt on Tuesday to participate in the Inaugural Session of the “Aswan Forum for Sustainable Peace and Development” on Wednesday seems to have driven many South African over the edge and they made it clear that it was wrong for the president to leave at the time that the country was in a crisis.
Some accused the president of running away from his country's problems, others said he did not know where his priorities lay while many others said he did not have the interests of South Africans at heart.
Others such as @SiphoTshabalala15 questioned Ramaphosa's timing saying: "The country is dark and you decide to leave,surely this must count as more than just a crisis Mr President."
People were scathing in their response to the news, saying that the fact that he could leave now showed that he was out of touch with reality.
Out of touch with the reality on the ground once again , flooding in Pretoria and the lack of electricity are issues that needs his full attention but hey the inaugural session is more important to him
— Faheem Shah (@FHM_123) December 9, 2019
We have stage 6 loadshedding here and he decides to leave the country.We don't have a President
— Phaahla (@TauYaPhaahla) December 9, 2019
Cyril disappears in the middle of a huge crisis. Billions of Rands are lost daily because of power cuts, a President is leaving the country! pic.twitter.com/L2QxmHUXBN
— Skhumbuzo Vilakazi (@sdvilakazi) December 9, 2019