Eskom contractor

President Cyril Ramaphosa visited Tutuka Power Station on Saturday, 16 July 2022. Photo: Twitter / @GovernmentZA

Ramaphosa meets with De Ruyter, visits Tutuka ahead of energy ‘family meeting’

The presidency said Ramaphosa will spend the day visiting Eskom power plants ‘to gain an understanding’ of the challenges affecting the parastatal’s generation fleet.

Eskom contractor

President Cyril Ramaphosa visited Tutuka Power Station on Saturday, 16 July 2022. Photo: Twitter / @GovernmentZA

President Cyril Ramaphosa paid a visit to Eskom’s Tutuka Power Station in Mpumalanga on Saturday, 16 July, as part of an oversight tour. The country is currently going through one of its darkest periods of load shedding and the president recently announced he would address the nation about the ongoing energy crisis.

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RAMAPHOSA VISITS ESKOM PLANT

Ramaphosa was received by Ministers of  Energy and Public Enterprises, Gwede Mantashe and Pravin Gordhan, the Mpumalanga Premier, Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane and Eskom CEO, Andre de Ruyter.

Police minister Bheki Cele was also present along with Tutuka Power Station General Manager, Sello Mametja.

The Presidency said Ramaphosa will spend the day engaging with Eskom management and employees at different power plants ‘to gain an understanding of the challenges’ affecting the parastatal’s energy generation fleet.

On Thursday, 14 July, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, confirmed that the president would announce the government’s emergency plans to tackle the worsening load shedding crisis.

A date for this address has not been set but Magwenya indicated that Ramaphosa would speak to the people of South Africa after he finishes consulting energy experts, according to SABC News.

“There’s a lot of work that is taking place and that the President is driving that will culminate into a credible, tangible, measurable plan that will lead to the resolution of the energy crisis in which we can stabilise the Eskom grid and try and avoid processes that are delaying this.

 The President is engaged with a number of stakeholders and energy experts outside of government, to come up with a plan that he can present no sooner than later to the nation,” said the presidency spokesperson.

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