WATCH: What experts say about SA’s energy crisis plans

It took almost a month of intense stage 6 load-shedding for President Cyril Ramaphosa to finally take charge of the electricity crisis that has deepened year after year.

The steps he eventually announced on Monday night to end load-shedding, ensure the sustainability of Eskom and transform the electricity-supply industry have been broadly welcomed by energy experts.

Without reverting to a state of disaster or emergency, Ramaphosa announced steps to: improve the performance of Eskom’s power stations; accelerate procurement of generation capacity; massively increase private sector investment in generation capacity; and enable businesses and households to invest in rooftop solar.

A large part of the “action plan to end load-shedding” rests on fixing the struggling state-owned power utility and on expanding and fast-tracking the state’s own renewable energy procurement processes. A big question mark still remains over how this will be funded, so all eyes on the finance minister come the mini budget in October.

It is also worth noting the unequivocal support for the current Eskom leadership following the energy minister’s comments about CEO André de Ruyter last week. To talk about this, Michael Avery is joined by Busisiwe Mavuso, CEO of Business Unity SA; Dr Miriam Altman, director of Altman Advisory and professor of 4IR practice at University of Johannesburg; and Clyde Mallinson, an independent energy analyst