South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. AP.
Pretoria: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will not be attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, his spokesman said, stating that the leader has taken the decision due to an ongoing energy crisis in the country.
“Due to the ongoing energy crisis, President @CyrilRamaphosa has cancelled his working visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos,” presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya wrote on Twitter.
Since Tuesday, power cuts have worsened in the country. The struggling state-owned power utility Eskom said it would implement its worst-ever outages until further notice.
“Currently the President is convening a meeting with leaders of political parties represented in parliament, NECCOM (National Energy Crisis Committee) and the Eskom board,” Magwenya said.
More briefing sessions with key stakeholders will take place during the coming week, Magwenya said.
A vast majority of electricity in South Africa is supplied by the beleaguered utility that even now rely mainly on an ageing fleet of coal-fired power stations which are prone to faults.
South Africa facing record blackouts
Over the past 12 months, South Africa has been experiencing record blackouts.
Reportedly, Eskom has been unable to keep pace with soaring demand as well as maintain its ageing coal power infrastructure.
Scheduled blackouts have burdened South Africa for years, but over the past 12 months, the outages have reached new extremes, with the firm blaming sabotage and crime.
For this week, Eskom said it would implement blackouts of up to nearly 12 hours a day until further notice after a string of generators broke down.
The outages have been weighing on the country’s economy. Hundreds of millions of dollars have gone down the drain in lost output, disrupting commerce and industry and angering the population.
The main opposition party – Democratic Alliance – on Saturday called on South Africans to join a protest march to “voice their anger” at the situation.
World Economic Forum 2023
World Economic Forum 2023 starts on Monday which would see global leaders come together for the biggest gathering in the snow-laden Swiss ski resort town. Thousands of people, including around a hundred participants from India, will discuss ‘cooperation in a fragmented world’.
This year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) summit will kickstart with the crystal awards ceremony.
The theme of the 53rd Annual Meeting would be ‘Cooperation in a Fragmented World’ and it will convene more than 2,700 leaders from 130 countries, including 52 heads of state/government.
With inputs from agencies
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