President Ramaphosa cancels trip to World Economic Forum as load shedding crisis deepens

President Cyril Ramaphosa has cancelled his trip to the WEF.

• President Cyril Ramaphosa has cancelled his “working trip” to the World Economic Forum’s feature gathering in Davos, Switzerland.
• His spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said Ramaphosa has convened a meeting with leaders of political parties, NECCOM and the Eskom board.
• This after Eskom announced last Wednesday that Stage 6 load shedding would run continuously until further notice.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has cancelled his “working trip” to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) gathering in Davos, Switzerland.

Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya posted a message to Twitter on Sunday announcing the cancellation.

“Due to the ongoing energy crisis, President Cyril Ramaphosa has cancelled his working visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Currently, the President is convening a meeting with leaders of political parties represented in parliament, National Energy Crisis Committee (NECCOM), and the Eskom board.

“President Cyril Ramaphosa has already engaged with the leadership of Eskom and NECCOM, and those meetings will continue. More briefing sessions to key stakeholders will take place during this coming week,” Magwenya said.

The WEF’s annual meeting is scheduled to start on Monday, running through to Friday.  

Eskom announced last Wednesday that Stage 6 load shedding would run continuously until further notice, with no indication when it would be scaling back.

Meanwhile, several high-profile leaders and major groups say they have no other choice but to take government, Eskom, and the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) to court over the load shedding crisis.

Prominent advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC confirmed to Rapport on Friday that he had received the backing of Holomisa, Build One SA leader Mmusi Maimane and policy analyst Lukhona Mnguni for the court application.

Lawyer Eric Mabuza was also on board and would lead a team of lawyers.

Mabuza told News24 on Sunday that they were working as speedily as possible to give this matter attention.

He said more details would be revealed on Monday.

News24 previously reported that a graph by The Outlier, a data and visual storytelling media platform, shows the increase in the number of days of load shedding. Using load shedding prediction app EskomSePush, the platform has tracked the increase in blackouts from 2015 to 2023.

South Africa has experienced load shedding every day this year, compared to no load shedding in the same period in 2022. Load shedding was implemented every day in November and December.