Cape Town - Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele says the government is working on a long-term plan to end load shedding.
This as businesses and other sectors of the economy are buckling under pressure from the rolling blackouts.
Gungubele said they were in discussions with a number of departments on the intervention measures to stop load shedding.
He said they needed certainty on when the load shedding would come to an end and to inform the nation.
For the last few months, Eskom has been implementing various stages of load shedding with some of the plants breaking down.
Some of the units were undergoing planned maintenance, leading to loss of capacity.
But Gungubele said they would not need a long-term solution to load shedding.
He said while the Cabinet met yesterday, the issue of load shedding did not come up.
“We didn’t actually discuss it as far as I remember. But all we are monitoring is interventions that are taking place, and some of the discussions we are having with the departments affected, trying to to find a long-term solution. One of the biggest challenges here is that we need to be in a position to say, understanding this problem, how long should people wait for its solution,” said Gungubele.
“It’s a matter we don’t want to be simplistic about. A lot of relevant people come in. One of the things we are trying to do is to communicate a coherent message on the matter,” said Gungubele.
He said they did not want to jump the gun on this matter until they were certain of when they will be able to deal with it.
POLITICAL BUREAU