Mayor Hill-Lewis welcomes President Ramaphosa’s commitment to municipal energy generation

25 November 2021  

I welcome the President’s statements in Parliament today that he encourages municipalities to purchase their own electricity, and will remove any and all regulatory obstacles to them doing so.

In his answer before the National Assembly this afternoon, Ramaphosa said:  “A number of the measures we have taken and put in place include that there should be independent generation of electricity, including by our local government entities. Local government entities play a critical role in the electricity system. […]We’ve given clear direction and permission for local government to generate. I’d like to see them immediately move on to generate electricity, to de-risk this risk that we have with one entity generating electricity for the entire country. National government is not going to obstruct the capabilities of local government at all.”

We are pleased to hear the President’s firm commitment and we will move forward on this without delay. By reducing sole dependence on the unstable national Eskom grid we can unlock major economic investment and growth in Cape Town, and end load-shedding in Cape Town over time.

Issued by Greg Wagner, Spokesperson to the Executive Mayor, 25 November 2021