Speaking while on the election campaign trail in the Ngwathe region in the Free State on Saturday‚ Maimane said the country was facing a critical energy crisis the likes of which it had not seen since the dawn of democracy. “Beyond the inconvenience of going without electricity for hours at a time‚ we face serious risks to our water distribution network‚ our sewage system and our primary healthcare. The continuous interruptions are also causing extensive damage to our electricity distribution system‚ which wasn’t built to be switched off and on all the time. Simply put‚ if this load-shedding carries on much longer‚ or if it escalates to stages 5 and beyond‚ we could be looking at a complete collapse of both our infrastructure and our currency‚” he cautioned. He said already the effects of load-shedding had been devastating to the economy‚ with small businesses suffering heavy losses‚ and some already having to shut their doors. “For every small business that closes shop‚ dozens of e...
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