President Cyril Ramaphosa used his final State of the Nation Address ahead of upcoming elections to reiterate government’s commitment to reforms in the country’s failing power and logistics sectors, including one that would open the electricity transmission sector to private investors. Speaking against the backdrop of almost daily power disruptions, South Africa’s worst-ever year for loadshedding in 2023, and a precipitous collapse in the freight rail service, which was constraining key commodity exports, Ramaphosa described the power and logistics crises as the “most important constraints on economic growth”.
