Tebogo Msimanga |
The City of Cape Town says in the next two weeks it will publish documents detailing their upcoming procurement of power from independent power producers (IPPs). This will include the announcement of tenders for the purchase of electricity from IPPs and timelines for bringing IPP-generated electricity onto the City’s supply network.
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said it has become clear to the City that if they wish to halt the damage caused by Eskom’s monopoly over electricity generation, “we have to take matters into our own hands. The only way for us to provide reliable and affordable electricity to our residents is to source it from elsewhere.”
Hill-Lewis said the urgency of the matter cannot be overstated in light of Eskom’s decision to implement stage-two load-shedding from 11 am on Wednesday until 05h00 next week Monday.
“Load-shedding means real businesses failing. Load-shedding means jobs are lost. Load-shedding makes the possibility of meaningful economic recovery ever more remote.”
He added that despite the economic devastation caused by load-shedding and the unreliability of its power supply, Eskom is pressing ahead with an application to Nersa to hike the price of electricity by 20,5% from 1 April 2022. “I have made it clear to Eskom and to Nersa that this planned increase is unfair, unjust, and unaffordable. Over 30 000 Capetonians signed a petition over the course of one weekend, asking Nersa to disallow the increase.”
“We hope that other spheres of government will respect our constitutional mandate to deliver electricity to our residents, and not stand in our way of making Cape Town the first load-shedding-free municipality in South Africa.
