Ramaphosa Cuts Egypt Trip Short In Wake Of Eskom Crisis

President Cyril Ramaphosa is heading back home amid an electricity crisis.

The Presidency has confirmed Ramaphosa will meet with Eskom management on Wednesday.

Ramaphosa left the country for Egypt on Monday. The announcement on his trip was made shortly after Eskom announced stage 6 load shedding.

He is in Egypt to attend the Aswan Forum for Sustainable Peace and Development Conference, which was scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

The Presidency said Ramaphosa would be accompanied by the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr Naledi Pandor, Minister Defence and Military Veterans Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, Minister of Trade and Industry Ebrahim Patel, Minister of State Security Ayanda Dlodlo and Minister of Tourism Ms Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane.

ESKOM IN CRISIS

Eskom on Tuesday said it was in a better position with generating capacity, but heavy rain in Mpumalanga was still impacting its coal supply.

The power utility implemented stage four load shedding on Tuesday morning, down from stage six on Monday.

Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer said the parastatal stockpiled on emergency supplies, like water and diesel, overnight and things were looking better. But South Africans were nowhere near out of the woods. The heavy rain and its effect on coal continued to hamper electricity output.

Oberholzer said they were working hard to mitigate the burden on consumers.

“We are still in excess of a 1,000 MW because of the rain, as it is still raining in Mpumalanga, where the majority of our coal power plant is situated. It looks much better than yesterday.”

Tuesday’s load shedding was expected to continue until 11 pm.

EWN