Western Cape Premier Alan Winde has reaffirmed his administration’s determination to rapidly reduce, and ultimately end, the impact of electricity loadshedding (scheduled rotating power cuts, imposed by national electricity utility Eskom) on the province. He did so in his keynote address at the ground-breaking ceremony for a solar power plant at the Rheinmetall Denel Munition (RDM) facility in Somerset West (in south-west Cape Town). “We really aim to become independent when it comes to energy provision,” he assured. “We want four or five towns this year to be loadshedding free.”