Warning that rolling blackouts could lead to food shortages

CEOs of companies which are members of the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa have called on government to urgently intervene in stopping a potential shortage of food, medicine and other essential goods due to rolling blackouts.

They made the call in an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The CEOs say Eskom’s maintenance of units through emergency power generators is financially unsustainable.

They have recommended the rapid implementation of the plans that are already in place.

The letter comes as Ramaphosa prepares to deliver his State of the Nation Address in the Cape Town City Hall this evening.

Zinhle Tyikwe is the council’s CEO.

“Load shedding has affected across the country, even from a supply chain efficiency perspective. It’s going to affect the manufacturer whose supplying these goods, it’s going to affect the supplier or the distributor who needs to make sure that they maintain the cold chain, then it’s going to affect the retailers. Yes, members to have generators as I indicated earlier but with increase in stages of load shedding that we saw last year and as early as this month have made sure that the cost is increasing and from an input cost perspective, it becomes a challenge to maintain to make sure that you do not pass this over to the consumer.  So, it’s important that government understands that.”

Experts weigh in on energy crisis 

Meanwhile, Experts have warned that government can’t use the country’s disaster management act to solve day-to-day man-made problems.

They say this is a risk to human rights and the constitution and will open the floodgates to rampant corruption.

The expert panel also warns that a state of disaster will not resolve the energy crisis currently crippling the country.

More details in the report below:

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