South Africa’s president to skip WEF to deal with crippling power cuts at home

JOHANNESBURG  – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will no longer attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos due to the ongoing energy crisis in the country, his spokesman said on Sunday.

Power cuts have worsened since Tuesday when struggling state utility Eskom said it would implement its worst-ever outages until further notice.

The power cuts are a major source of public frustration with the governing African National Congress (ANC) and a brake on economic growth in Africa’s most industrialised nation.

“Currently the President is convening a meeting with leaders of political parties represented in parliament, NECCOM (National Energy Crisis Committee) and the Eskom board,” Vincent Magwenya, presidential spokesman said.

He added that further briefing sessions with key stakeholders will take place during this coming week.

The beleaguered utility supplies the vast majority of South Africa’s electricity, relying mainly on an ageing fleet of coal-fired power stations that are unreliable and prone to faults.