On Monday, February 23, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi delivered the State of the Province Address (SOPA) at the Nesrec Expo Centre. It is unfortunate that he did not come well prepared to address the electricity issues currently challenging residents in this province.
Yes, the minister of electricity has put an end to nationwide load shedding. However, what are his plans for the ongoing blackouts? The stations are constrained, there are illegal connections, cable theft, the infrastructure is old, we have heard of these reasons and need solutions that will last. Renaming the problem is not solving it. Blackouts are even worse as they are unplanned and last for days on end.
We saw the headlines regarding the recovered R3 million worth of cooper cables. Premier, why did you not give us a detailed strategy on how you plan to prevent this cable theft from happening again? Strong security measures need to be implemented at cable theft hotspots. The people of Gauteng deserve to spend the electricity they pay for without paying extra for generators, solar, gas appliances, data and fast foods.
There were no funds allocated to fixing the old substations and transformers in our province, which are also reasons for the constant trips in electricity supply. Out of the 15 investments he mentioned, from water reservoirs to houses and fast trains, not one investment was allocated to this problem.
City Power in Johannesburg has been screaming “systems constrained due to rising population.” Where are the plans to address this overpopulation within the province as it is one of the major factors affecting our power supply.
The project of turning recyclable waste into energy could really benefit us. As it is currently being done in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, it has proven both profitable and reliable. It would be like killing two birds with one stone as we also struggle with land pollution in Johannesburg.
As we look forward to the upcoming SOPA debates, we expect this shortcoming to be addressed in the house.
FEATURED IMAGE: Panyaza Lesufi delivering SOPA 2026. Photo: Nigel Sibanda/The Citizen
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