South Africa: Premier Alan Winde on Making the Western Cape More Energy Resilient

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Today Premier Alan Winde visited a Macassar-based business, Taylor Technology, that is taking steps to ameliorate the impact of ongoing load shedding. The Premier was accompanied by former Eskom executive Alwie Lester, who has now joined the Western Cape Government (WCG) team, and Executive Director of Energy at the City of Cape Town Kadri Nassiep.

Another difficult year of rolling power cuts lies ahead for the country. By visiting Taylor Technology, the Premier had an opportunity to see for himself how the private sector – particularly small to medium-sized businesses - are faring and what the Western Cape Government (WCG) can do to nurture an enabling environment for business owners and their employees.

“Making the Western Cape more energy resilient will remain a top priority for the WCG in 2023,” Premier Winde assured residents. He added, “We need to make sure there is more investment into and from the private sector to mitigate the devastating effects of load shedding. In 2022 we had 3 630 hours cumulative hours of load shedding in South Africa. Economic recovery and more importantly job creation cannot happen under these circumstances. ”

“2022 was a year of recovery for the province. In 2023 we will push harder to further our economic recovery amid the ongoing energy crisis. The very successful festive season concluded the Western Cape’s year of recovery,” the Premier emphasised. He added, “But now at the beginning of 2023 we know that it will be a challenging year, but it is nonetheless a year of hope and opportunity for the Western Cape.”

He applauded Energy Capital – a business that has so far installed 280 solar panels at Taylor Technology’s premises to help it become more resilient and sustainable – for harnessing the potential of the renewable energy sector.

“I applaud our partners in the private sector for taking chances by setting up their business operations in our province, bringing with them economic and job opportunities, and for helping in our collective drive to become more energy resilient. This will take a mammoth effort; it is, however, one we are up to and committed to. My government and I will be working closely with the private sector and municipalities across the province to ensure we create an enabling environment for energy resilience. I am very excited by the work that I am seeing in Saldanha Bay, Stellenbosch, George, and the City of Cape Town to bring more independent Power Producers (IPPs) on board and we will work closely with all provincial municipalities in 2023 to develop our energy resilience. Premier Winde concluded.”

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of South African Government.