Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has move to defend the statement made by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation Address (SoNA) on Thursday night that “the end of loadshedding is finally within reach”. This, despite South Africa rapidly descending into Stage 6 loadshedding only hours after the conclusion of the speech and the prospect of ongoing high levels of power disruptions until at least Wednesday. Speaking as a hastily convened briefing – moved to Sunday instead of the Monday morning initially scheduled for the Minister’s regular update on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan – Ramokgopa refused to accept that the President’s statement had caused any embarrassment.
