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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has canceled plans to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos because of the energy crisis affecting the country, his spokesman said on Sunday.
South Africa has experienced record power outages over the past 12 months due to problems with state power company Eskom.
Ramaphosa was scheduled to lead a government delegation to the World Economic Forum event in the Swiss Alps next week, but will instead stay home and meet with Eskom and political leaders, the president said. spokesman Vincent Magwenya said.
Magwenya tweeted: “Due to the ongoing energy crisis, President @CyrilRamaphosa has canceled a working visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“Currently, the President is calling meetings with the political party leaders represented in Congress, the NECCOM (National Energy Crisis Committee), and the Eskom Board.”
Eskom has been unable to keep up with demand, unable to sustain its aging coal-fired infrastructure, and rolling blackouts have burdened South Africa for years.
But outages have reached new extremes in the past 12 months, with the company blaming sabotage and crime.
After a series of generators failed this week, it said it would implement a power outage of up to nearly 12 hours a day until further notice.
Power outages have cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars, disrupted commerce and industry, and angered the public.
On Saturday, the main opposition party, the Democratic League, called on South Africans to join a protest march and “express their anger” over the situation.
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