Dear Capetonians,
Thank you for the patience shown by many of you as we work to get through this period of nation-crippling loadshedding together.
I wanted to offer a few reflections and updates here on the events of the past week, and what needs to happen going forward.
Firstly, before I set out what we in Cape Town are doing to mitigate the crisis, let us not forget what is really happening here: a small group of illegally striking workers are putting their own personal interests ahead of the entire country; and literally taking the nation to brink. Their actions are wreaking havoc on the economy, destroying jobs and businesses, making communities more dangerous, causing great hardship for residents, and impacting on our ability to deliver basic services.
All the while, our President is yet to speak publicly to the country about the crisis. I call on him to address the nation on what he is doing to resolve the strike and to stabilise South Africa’s energy supply.
In Cape Town, we are doing all we can to protect residents from the full impact of loadshedding. We are using our Steenbras Hydro Electric System to near maximum capacity, but we do need to keep some in reserve in the event that (and we pray this doesn’t happen) loadshedding gets even worse.
And, even this system has its limits. If Stage 6 is in place for most of the week again, the lower reservoir will fill up, and there won’t be enough time to pump water up fast enough to drain the reservoir and keep the turbines producing. Put simply, water runs down the hill much faster than it can be pumped back up.
Importantly, the severity of this loadshedding also means our infrastructure is taking a real beating.
Heavy machinery - such as water pumps, sewage pump stations, electricity transformers and substations - is just not made to take this kind of abuse. The constant on-again-off-again is causing dozens of localised trips. Our teams are out in full force dealing with these local faults, and most can be resolved quickly. Some take longer.
As our City teams crisscross the city to try to help, I understand that residents do suffer great inconvenience and are often frustrated. Please know that we have got all our teams on standby to assist at any time of day or night.
We have deployed more than 100 extra traffic officers and 100 extra law enforcement and metro police officers, to help manage the traffic consequences and to be a visible safety presence in communities. We will also activate our Disaster Operations Centre for as long as Stage 6 persists, and continue to prepare for any possible escalation.
Finally, all of this underscores just how necessary and urgent our drive to reduce our reliance on Eskom and end loadshedding in Cape Town was and is. While this a journey, we are on it and pushing it ambitiously. We simply must do more to protect our residents from the dire failure to provide even the most basic services at a national level - be it energy, policing, public transport, bulk water, you name it.
We have to make sure that this is the last straw, by pushing as fast as we can to devolve the generation of electricity and other critical services from a national government that is clearly collapsing.
As we brace for another difficult week in South Africa, I’m optimistic because I know we’re doing more for ourselves. And that’s the way of the future.
Best,
Geordin
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