Cape Town - Ratepayers in Cape Town have paid R290 million for diesel, extra generators, and storage space for diesel in preparation for Stage 8 and 10 load shedding.
This was according to mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis as he addressed council on Thursday.
“We have spent R290m to prepare ourselves for load shedding properly so that we can keep some modicum of basic services running in the event of Stage 8 and Stage 10 shutdown.
So I believe that we are as ready as we can be. We have all of the generators that we can possibly get ... and we have secured more space for diesel storage.
“My message to the administration and to the city manager has been (that) I would rather have a full room of generators that we do not need rather than need them and they are not there,“ he said.
Sandra Dickson from lobby group Stop CoCT said: “Finally, a price is put on to the City of Cape Town’s efforts to save Capetonians a stage or two of load shedding and that is a staggering R290m for the 2022/23 budget year.
This explains why the City had to put up the electricity tariff by a whopping 17.6% effective 1 July 2023.
“If the City stuck to the same rules as the rest of the country this humongous increase could have been avoided as only 60% of CoCT’s costs for electricity can be attributed to bulk purchases from Eskom.
“Stop CoCT also has many reports of industrial areas that never get load shedding to protect businesses.
This is grossly unfair as everyone is paying the price for the City’s policy to burn diesel to safeguard only some portions of people using electricity.”
Meanwhile, during a sitting in the legislature on Thursday, MPLs got the opportunity to raise their concerns with what was labelled as the national government’s “lack of urgency in securing South Africa’s status” in terms of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) and the implications for trade and economic growth in the province.
South Africa has enjoyed preferential trade with the US market through Agoa.
Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC Mireille Wenger said the province faced “significant” challenges. “Agoa has helped to bolster South Africa’s development and facilitated job creation, foreign direct investment and the expansion of local industries,” she said.
“Each and every one of us in this house has the responsibility to do everything in our power to ensure that we work day and night to ensure that our collective future and our tomorrow is better than today. Part of this responsibility is to work with other countries.
“AGOA has helped to bolster South Africa’s development and facilitated job creation, foreign direct investment and the expansion of local industries,” she said.
Deputy chief whip of the ANC in the province, Khalid Sayed, said that President Cyril Ramaphosa sent his “A-team”, led by his security advisor, to the US to secure relations.
“The US ambassador to South Africa, through a tweet, reaffirmed that his country and ours enjoy a strong partnership,” he said.
Cape Times