South Africa: MPs quiz Ramaphosa on energy crisis
In front of the South African elected officials, Cyril Ramaphosa noted the errors repeated for several years without reassuring.
(illustrative image) REUTERS/Mike Hutchings
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2 mins
As the electricity crisis continues in South Africa, the president was questioned at length on the subject by parliamentarians.
To preserve the electricity network, load shedding deprives South Africans of electricity for up to seven hours a day, sometimes 11 hours at the start of the crisis.
Corruption, poor governance of the public company Eskom, sabotage, aging network... the causes are numerous.
Before the National Assembly, Cyril Ramaphosa noted the errors repeated for several years without reassuring.
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With our correspondent in Johannesburg,
Romain Chanson
The electricity crisis is not new to South Africa, but it is getting worse.
And this despite the promises of improvement made a few years ago, as recalled by John Steenhuisen, the leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), the first opposition party.
"
Mr. President, let me remind you of what you said in 2015:
'In 18 months, the challenges we encountered with power generation and Eskom will be a distant memory.'
Seven years later, we are going through the worst year in terms of load shedding.
»
The two coal-fired power stations that have been built in recent years have not been the hoped-for solution, Ramaphosa acknowledged.
But the president made a point of stressing the exceptional nature of the crisis that South Africa is going through today.
“
Two weeks ago, almost 50% of electricity production collapsed.
It's not something we had planned, we the ministers or the director of the company.
Between cable thefts, crime, the age of our power plants, all of this combined brings us to where we are today.
But we are finding a solution.
»
Ramaphosa still promises new announcements, two months after a major televised speech on the energy crisis.
South Africa wants to end Eskom's monopoly and open the power generation market to private players.
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Energies