CAPE TOWN: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday that an end to crippling power cuts was “within reach” and promised thousands of new jobs in a key speech ahead of this year’s knife-edge election.
With his historically dominant African National Congress (ANC) party struggling in the polls, Ramaphosa used the State of the Nation address to highlight steps being taken to address the long-term energy crisis that is troubling businesses and families alike.
“We are confident that the worst is behind us and the end of load-shedding is finally at hand,” he said, referring to the outages, in a speech to lawmakers at Cape Town City Hall.
“But we’re not stopping there,” he added, touting new reforms and investments including more than 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles) of new transmission lines to accommodate renewables to be introduced in the coming years.
“With our abundance of solar, wind and mineral resources, we will create thousands of jobs in renewable energy, green hydrogen, green steel, electric vehicles and other green products,” Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa, 71, faces an uphill battle to win support for the scandal-tainted ANC, which polls say is at risk of losing its parliamentary majority for the first time.
Late anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela’s party, in power since democracy came in 1994, is marred by bribery and mismanagement amid high unemployment and a dormant economy.
Ramaphosa defended his record, saying his government had “made significant progress on measures to grow the economy, create jobs and reduce poverty”.
“While we have set the recovery and reform process in motion, more work needs to be done to see these reforms through,” he said.
But John Steenhuisen, head of the Democratic Alliance (DA), the main opposition party, said the president was “living in a wonderland”, adding that the country had deteriorated on all indicators under his tenure.
“This is not the lived reality of ordinary South Africans. Our country is desperate and I think these South Africans are very eager for elections,” he told AFP outside the town hall after the speech.
It was the third time Ramaphosa had to deliver a town hall speech after the national parliament was ravaged by arson in 2022.
