Ramaphosa expected to announce emergency energy intervention plan soon

President Cyril Ramaphosa will soon announce an emergency government package that will cushion consumers and businesses against the worsening electricity crisis which is expected to slash SA’s growth by as much as 2 percentage points in 2023.

The interventions are expected to be announced before the biannual planning meeting scheduled for the first week of February, but are unlikely to be equivalent to the size of the government’s R500bn Covid-19 relief package, said ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula 

“There have been calls from many groups and business that this [load-shedding] is a crisis and we are in an emergency... so an emergency package will be announced by government,” Mbalula said on Friday on the sidelines of a two-day ANC national executive committee meeting.

Mbalula said Ramaphosa told the party’s 87-member top brass about government’s plans during his opening political report. Ramaphosa is expected to expand on how government will help mitigate against power outages that have left large parts of the country without power for as much as 10 hours a day.