Power outages have become common in South Africa over the last decade as state utility Eskom struggles.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will not attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos due to the country’s ongoing energy crisis, his spokesman announced on Sunday.
Power outages have worsened since Tuesday, when the country’s struggling state utility Eskom announced that it would implement its worst-ever outages until further notice.
Over the last decade, power outages have become a major source of public dissatisfaction with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and a drag on economic growth in Africa’s most industrialized nation.
“Currently the President is convening a meeting with leaders of political parties represented in parliament, NECCOM [National Energy Crisis Committee] and the Eskom board,” Vincent Magwenya, presidential spokesman said.
He added that further briefings with key stakeholders will take place in the coming week.
The beleaguered utility supplies the vast majority of South Africa’s electricity, relying mainly on an ageing fleet of coal-fired power stations that are unreliable and prone to faults.
Eskom has also had to deal with strikes by its workforce, including most recently in June after negotiations with trade unions including the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa broke down.
The loss-making utility, saddled with a huge debt pile approaching 400 billion rand ($25bn), is trying to contain costs as part of turnaround efforts under Chief Executive Andre de Ruyter.