President Ramaphosa Cancels WEF Trip to Davos to Address Load Shedding

President Cyril Ramaphosa has cancelled his travel plans to Davos, Switzerland, in order to deal with the current load-shedding crisis in South Africa. Although South Africans have been to this rodeo before – when the president cut short his UK trip and cancelled the New York leg to return home last year to address the energy crisis. Since then, rather than anything improving, matters have escalated with South Africans currently experiencing constant Stage 6 Loadshedding “until further notice”.

The President’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said on Sunday evening:

“Due to the ongoing energy crisis, President Cyril Ramaphosa has cancelled his working visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Currently, the President is convening a meeting with leaders of political parties represented in Parliament, NECCOM [National Energy Crisis Committee] and the Eskom board.”

Ramaphosa had been due to lead a South African delegation to Davos on Tuesday, and participate in several events linked to the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting, including the Dialogue on Economics of Women’s Health and the Annual Welcome Dinner hosted by Professor Klaus and Hilde Schwab.

Instead he is expected to hold several briefing sessions in SA, regarding the power crisis.

“President Cyril Ramaphosa has already engaged with the leadership of Eskom and National Energy Crisis Committee (NECCOM) and those meetings will continue. More briefing sessions to key stakeholders will take place during this coming week,” Magwenya said.

The electricity supply crisis at the power utility reached crisis levels last week when the power utility announced that it would implement Stage 6 load shedding until further notice after 11 generating units broke down in one morning. – SAnews.gov.za