Delivering the State of the Nation Address last Thursday night, President Cyril Ramaphosa promised that load shedding would soon be a thing of the past. Picture: Ayanda Ndamane/Independent Newspapers
Oh Lord, help me to keep my mouth shut until I know what I am talking about.
This famous daily prayer rings true when it comes to President Cyril Ramaphosa and Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa and the load shedding conundrum.
Ramokgopa, considered one of the “smart heads” within the ANC, was touted as the man to combat load shedding head-on when he was appointed to the then new portfolio by Ramaphosa a year ago.
Delivering the State of the Nation Address last Thursday night, Ramaphosa promised that load shedding would soon be a thing of the past.
It is the same hymn, and same book he has been singing from since he announced the creation of the Cabinet portfolio for an electricity minister.
During the Sona, he told the nation that “...we are confident that the worst is behind us and the end of load shedding is finally within reach. But we are not stopping there. To ensure that we never face a similar crisis ever again, we are reforming our energy system.”
He said the plan to end load shedding was already reducing the frequency of power cuts, adding that there was light at the end of the tunnel.
Well, his must be a very long tunnel, for the promised light that the president keeps seeing appears to still be very far away.
In fact, barely 24 hours after Sona, Eskom introduced the harsher Stage 6 load shedding – more than four hours of outages – which had gone down to between stages 2 and 4 by Tuesday.
Ramokgopa, as expected, backed his boss in declaring that the end was in sight, as he has done since his appointment to the portfolio.
Ramaphosa and Ramokgopa should rather remain silent until they have a good load-shedding story to tell.
Cape Times