Cabinet notes continued improvement in electricity availability

The Cabinet continues to receive an update on the electricity situation in the country and notes reports of the continued improvement in electricity availability.

This is according to the Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, who was briefing the media on the outcomes of the Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday.

“Although the last few days had recorded an increase in the load shedding stages to Stage 4, the situation has since improved with the return of units to generation and Eskom continues to taper down the load shedding stages,” Ntshavheni said on Thursday.

The state-owned power entity announced this morning that load shedding would jump to Stage 4 as more generating units failed last night.

Minister Ntshavheni also spoke about the communities that have no electricity due to power outages and not load shedding.

These power outages, the Minister said, are caused by system overload due to illegal connections, theft or vandalism of sub-stations and transformers, and vandalism of distribution lines.

The affected communities include parts of Soweto, Tembisa, KwaThema, Komane, Taung and Ditsobotla.

Ntshavheni announced that the Ministers of Electricity and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs have since commenced with a programme to engage with the affected communities to agree on measures to replace damaged infrastructure.

However, the Minister said this would be linked with the prohibition of illegal connections, community partnerships in the protection of electricity infrastructure, and payment for electricity services.

“South Africa’s agreement with the Chinese companies, on recently signed agreements, will play a significant role in introducing electricity infrastructure with self-preservation capability.”

Western Cape Provincial Powers Bill

In addition,  Ntshavheni said the Executive has also been briefed about the “unconstitutional” draft Western Cape Provincial Powers Bill.

The Bill creates a framework for the province to fully assert its existing constitutional and legislative powers and to get more powers delegated from the national government.

“The Draft Bill violates the provisions of Schedules 4 and 5 of the Constitution that set out powers and functions including concurrent powers of both the provincial and national executives.”

“Cabinet has noted that this draft Bill is an attempt to revert to the Democratic Party’s, forerunner to the Democratic Alliance preferred federal approach that seeks to undermine a united and inclusive South Africa,” the Minister explained.

In addition, she said the Draft Bill ignores the exclusion from access to services of the large Black communities of Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Nyanga, Langa, the Cape Flats, Delft, and Central Line, among others.

“Cabinet has mandated the Ministers of Justice and CoGTA to enter into discussions with the Western Cape provincial government in line with the relevant dispute resolution mechanisms as provided for in section 146 of the Constitution and the applicable intergovernmental framework.”