POWER CRISIS
National shutdown threat in protest against Eskom’s rolling blackouts and tariff hikes — Ramaphosa cancels Davos trip
A national shutdown might be looming in response to the Eskom tariff hikes and ongoing rolling blackouts.
The recent approval by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa), the energy regulator, to increase the Eskom tariff to 18.65% for 2023 and a 12.74% hike for 2024 has prompted the threat of a national shutdown.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, scheduled to attend the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos this week, has cancelled his trip to attend to the power crisis, his spokesperson Vincent Magwenya tweeted on Sunday evening.
“Due to the ongoing energy crisis, President Cyril Ramaphosa has cancelled his working visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Currently, the President is convening a meeting with leaders of political parties represented in parliament, [National Energy Crisis Committee] and the Eskom board,” said Magwenya.
“President Cyril Ramaphosa has already engaged with the leadership of Eskom and National Energy Crisis Committee and those meetings will continue. More briefing sessions to key stakeholders will take place during this coming week.”
Earlier, Magwenya said Ramaphosa acknowledged the frustration of indefinite Stage 6 rolling blackouts and was worried about Eskom’s latest 18.65% tariff hike, but said he did not have the authority to intervene.
The nationwide shutdown has been endorsed by members of the public, civil society organisations and political parties across various social media platforms, with many planning to either march to the Union Buildings or Eskom’s Megawatt Park offices in Johannesburg.
MASIYE! Food is extremely expensive, no jobs, loadshedding at it peak, crime, EVERYTHING is falling apart! We need to save us. #NationalShutdown
— Yaya Mavundla (@YayaRSA) January 13, 2023
However, a date and venue for the shutdown have not been announced.
A movement under the banner People’s Movement for Change (PMC) says it will join other civil society organisations to protest against power cuts to put pressure on Eskom and the government.
The African Transformation Movement (ATM) is also one of the political parties that have endorsed the shutdown and have called on the government to stop mismanaging Eskom and end rolling blackouts.
“In August 2022, Ramaphosa established the National Energy Crisis Committee to look into load shedding, after many promises by his administration since 2018. Nothing has been delivered. The time is up! Let’s take a stand! #NationalShutdown,” says ATM.
Because of #Loadshedding, many businesses are facing closure. The ones holding on are struggling to pay salaries due to unrealised profits.
For our economy. For our country. Take a stand! #NationalShutdown pic.twitter.com/k7BH8SxuLX
— African Transformation Movement (@ATMovement_SA) January 13, 2023
The tariff hike comes amid Stage 6 rolling blackouts where those living in South Africa are subject to no power for half of each day — 12 hours daily.
In response to the Eskom tariff hikes and ongoing rolling blackouts, the official opposition party Democratic Alliance (DA) has launched a petition advocating cheaper and more reliable electricity which 70,790 supporters have already signed.
In a tweet dated 13 January 2023 DA leader John Steenhuisen has called on all South Africans to join the party in its rolling mass action against the recent electricity tariff increases.
“It’s time to hit the streets SA! We can’t sit back and take hyperinflationary increases! Far too many citizens are barely able to keep their heads above water. This 18% Nersa increase is like a government jackboot pushing more of us under the surface,” the tweet reads.
In the course of the weekend, Steenhuisen announced that the DA is organising a major protest march to the ANC headquarters at Luthuli House in Johannesburg on 25 January.
“Stage 6 load shedding has taken away your power. It is time to take away the ANCs,” said Steenhuisen.
Meanwhile, the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) Julius Malema said the ANC needed to be removed from power and it was time to act.
“The picket lines are calling our names. We can’t allow them to turn us into a nation of cowards; everything has collapsed under Ramaphosa, and we look like a helpless nation,” he said.
We are our own liberators; we must remove the ANC from power, but even before that, Ramaphosa must fall with immediate effect and failure to do that, we must push him out of office.
— Julius Sello Malema (@Julius_S_Malema) January 13, 2023
Political party Action SA president Herman Mashaba agrees with the EFF that the ANC must be removed from power to end rolling blackouts.
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“The only way to end this crisis is to end the ANC’s stranglehold over South Africa. The ANC government has no plan to end our energy crisis,” said Mashaba.
Civil society outraged by Eskom tariff hikes and rolling blackouts
Liz McDaid, OUTA’s Parliamentary and Energy Adviser, said there was no escape from electricity tariff increases and rolling blackouts.
“As customers we are expected to shore up our failed electricity utility. For Eskom, there is huge pressure to improve its energy availability factor (EAF) to above 65% to meet the regulator’s conditions, whilst not being given the full extent of its 32% increase application. OUTA is outraged at the government’s failure to help South Africans to weather this storm.”
McDaid said the electricity crisis needs to be addressed urgently and effectively.
“We also need a forward-looking energy minister who sees the value of renewable energy and fast tracks its implementation to get affordable energy onto the grid,” she said.
Greenpeace Africa Climate and Energy Campaigner, Nhlanhla Sibisi said: “This tariff increase, which is almost three times the inflation rate of 7.4%, will seriously and negatively impact South Africans. What’s more unthinkable is that South Africans are expected to incur a greater cost while receiving less electricity, considering we are in the longest extended period of load shedding in the history of the electricity crisis.”
Sibisi said a just transition to renewable energy is the best and most immediate solution to South Africa’s energy crisis and can help solve the youth unemployment crisis, without forcing South Africans to pay for Eskom’s history of corruption and mismanagement.
SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi claimed that “with increases in the past 15 years, the electricity tariff is more than 800% higher than 2007”.
He said the tariff hike would “devastate the budgets of poor and working people, especially women”.
“Paying for food and electricity now costs way more than the national minimum wage, earned by about half of the workforce in the country,” said Vavi. DM
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If Cyril Ramaphosa, as president of the country, ex deputy president, ex leader of the Eskom war room and appointer of a task force to investigate the power supply, is under the impression he does not have the authority to intervene in the current NERSA rate hike and everything that led up to it, then that tells you everything you need to know about his leadership. Shocking. Pun intended.
Erm, the first quote from the 2-bit Zuma proxy the ATM? Also does ActionSA really agree with the EFF, those wise bastions of truth and wisdom? Thanks for the article, but please dont give criminals free airtime on DM. This is a place for serious news.
Well said
Ditto!
Absolutely! Irresponsible and stupid journaalism!
Well said Paul T
Yes, agreed! Please keep the Daily Maverick free of Zuma- and/or Malema-talk
The ANC/SACP appears to be unable to govern; period!
South Africa continues its downhill slide in just about every regard – healthcare for the majority of the population, provision of basic services to all, and an economy that can barely keep its head above water.
What the end-game will look like is impossible to predict, but one thing is for sure: it won’t be pretty, and it sure will involve significant socio/political unrest.
Too many well-intentioned individuals were conned by this once-liberation movement of lofty ideas and ideals, none of which have born fruit.
It’s time to abandon widespread naivete, and replace it with cold assessment.
Cry the beloved country, yet again….
What do people think will happen after strikes and rolling mass action?
Will Eskom cut off non-payers? Good for two stages at least, maybe three.
Will somebody do the math and realize that business running diesel on private generators at R21/liter costs more than Eskom running big generators at their R7/liter?
Will Eskom cut staff so that they don’t pay R800k average for a collective that is severely incompetent?
Gwede is on a mission for his wife’s power ships. Will that change?
Agreed. It is not “Eskom” that is wrong, it is the Minister who is creating the crisis for his own ends, and elements within Eskom that are supporting this agenda. There are good people at Eskom and changing the CEO who has done more than any preceding him, to turn off the taps, is not going to change anything, nor will marches and petitions. Government needs to put its support behind rooting out the theft and corruption but that won’t happen because all the agencies are themselves incompetent and/or corrupt. The state is still captured and we are left to fend for ourselves. It’s a ticking time bomb.
Of course he’s cancelled his Davos trip. Doesn’t want to be exposed as the failed President of a Failed State…which is what he is!
At least he has the courage to be embarrassed but that doesn’t change the fact that he has failed.
You took the words right out of my mouth!
That was the first thought I had when he cancelled. He will be unable to sell “SA is open for business” and also unable to answer whether he will complete his second term. There are many dark clouds over his head.
In my opinion, very few people abroad really know what is going on in SA. Moreover, the President is such a charming well-spoken gentleman and not new to the people attending the WEF. Surely Ramaphosa will be able to keep the SA mess out of the conversations. Maybe some smart journalist would have been able to ruin his show.
And then of course there is the embarrassment of belonging to the BRICS cartel that means we support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – not the present you want to bring to the Davos Party! And then of course….how does he explain what the Russian ship brought into or took out of Simonstown, should anyone ask! There are a million reasons why CR won’t show his face in Davos! Perhaps the biggest is that he has accepted an $8.5b energy bailout from the US and Europe, can’t explain why he is not sanctioning Russia and definitely can’t tell the lenders that the money which should be used for wind and solar energy alternatives, when he knows it’s just going to be pocketed by his mates! Hard to keep a straight face in Davos with that knowledge!
And repo will go up again soon. Its untenable. Something must give.
I think that might be you and me…
Me too !
And the giving will continue be be you, me and the masses while the overpaid Eskom “staff” live the high life destroying our future. The SA army protecting power stations against the staff stealing the company should make the situation clear, it is going to get worse, but that is the road to 2030, we own nothing, they own us.
The time for action is long past. Protests now will achieve nothing. ESKOM is broken, the utility cannot fix itself overnight, this is a task of huge cost and many years to repair the rot of ages, that is, if there was ever any intention of fixing things. Mantashe’s plan of controlled demolition for a rebuild along his preferred lines is well underway. We aint seen nothing yet.
I fear your observations and comments are spot on…the slow implosion has now been fast tracked by an undisclosed agenda.
And they think a new CEO at Eskom will solve everything
On point! No amount of striking can magically make generation capacity appear or Eskom’s debt disappear. Getting rid of the incompetents in the bloated staff component and cutting off non-payers is a start, but let’s face it, we’re in for 5 to 10 years of darkness. The population need to look at themselves and their democratic choices for now, because the ruinous cabal that brought us to this point had their blessings all along….
Too many ANC bigwigs are no doubt profiting from the corruption at ESKOM for there to be any incentive to change the status quo. We need to support this rolling mass action to demand that there is an industrial scale private sector Team brought in to clean out the corrupt and incompetent and to right size ESKOM. This needs political support so we can dream on.
Yip. Complaints, galore. Viva, ANC, Viva!
It takes exceptional talent – and lack of political will – to take a wealthy, well organised country and completely succeed in bringing it to its knees. No excuses. No-one else to blame.
The cancellation of the Davos trip is a clear indication of Ramaphosa’s uselessness and incompetence The electricity crisis is nothing new. Emergency meetings with ALL parts of society should have taken place a long time ago. By now we should have a clear schedule who is dong what in order to eliminate the crisis. He appears to be like his buffaloes, as long as they have enough food to eat, they don’t worry about tomorrow.
why is the President talking with politicians? It was their incompetence starting under Thabo Mbeke that put us in this mess. talk to business.
if the country wants to make a point, stop paying tax just like civil disobedience stopped albeit slowly e-tolls. let the people speak this way as government does not listen to anything else.
For how many years have the ANC had the chance to get ESKOM working properly?
Load shedding = no electricity sold but massive fixed + operating costs remaining, which is why the need for large price increases.
The people who can afford it are going off grid + the people who don’t pay their bills, leave the decreasing pool of paying customers to shoulder the burden of the higher tariffs.
This is already happening. Fixing powerplants and increasing grid capacity is a longer term solution which is basically painting a sinking ship if nothing is down to break the trend now.
Start trimming the fat at Eskom, starting with the incompetent top brass and eliminate ineffective management layers.
Seriously consider the Karpower ships as a temporary solution. Get sellable electricity on the grid ASAP
Renegotiate coal supply contracts. Force majeure
Drive accountability down to plant management.
“When you are in a hole, stop digging.” (Get rid of the ANC). “When you have stopped digging, you are still in a hole.” (It will take many bitter years post-ANC to pull this country right.)
The real problem of Eskom, (and Eskom is a mere subset of the big problem) is that money and capital has run out (we know why).
Remember rolling mass action? We need that, not to exert fruitless pressure on government, but to convince and mobilise the electorate.
Hear, hear!
Panel 1 “Beyond Eskom” at The Gathering in November 2022 was excellent, with viable solutions. It’s on YouTube.
As an ordinary man in the street, I would be willing to help fund a nationwide media campaign across all platforms to target two groups; the no-voters and the politically illiterate ANC supporters. The message: the problem is not Eskom, it’s the ANC. Get them out at the next election!
That’s great. The president is meeting with Eskom plus other politicians. They will just talk and threaten. So what???? It seems like the problem is not at the top. Managers are reporting to the top. Do they actually know what is happening on the “ground floor?” Maybe some retired engineers are needed to sort out the problem at the bottom?
All these political parties are a joke. Only now, do they propose mass action or a shutdown… Have they not been paying attention all these years?
It’s all for free airtime during the period of high visibility.
Has anyone seem a ” what to do plan” point by point of what steps must be taken Or are we all just shouting and gesturing in Anger with no ‘written’ plan .