Western Cape Premier Alan Winde on Wednesday hosted the first meeting of his newly established Energy Council.

Winde pointed out that the first round of stage 6 load-shedding for 2023 was not even two weeks into the new year, before intensive energy users have restarted operations.

The council laid out the foundations for how it will be constituted and has fleshed out its priorities, namely to ensure that the Western Cape is energy resilient.

Former Eskom manager Alwie Lester – who has been appointed as an energy advisor in the Office of the Premier – was also officially introduced to other council officials. “Lester has wasted no time and has hit the ground running,” said Winde.

“Urgency is required if we are to save our economy and push ahead with our Growth For Jobs strategy. Load-shedding is costing South Africa and our province billions in lost opportunities. It is conservatively estimated that stage 6 load-shedding is costing South Africa between four and six billion rand per day. The Western Cape has to become independent of Eskom as quickly as possible.”

The council undertook to include the expertise of key stakeholders in the private sector. Winde said the private sector should be enabled as quickly as possible.

Tertuis Simmers, the Western Cape infrastructure minister, also said a key approach would be to further opening up the market to independent power producers to come on board to help end load-shedding.

A plan of action, both medium and long-term, was discussed, involving whatever resources the Western Cape Government has at its disposal.

The council has resolved that:

• its work must be data-driven;
• a broad energy mix must be considered;
• all viable opportunities must be explored; and
• the most vulnerable in the province must always be borne in mind as they are suffering the most as a result of relentless power cuts, which are predicted to worsen this year.

Meanwhile, South African Twitter users on Friday voiced their dissatisfaction with rolling blackouts as they called for a national shutdown.

Read more: Calls for #NationalShutdown following Eskom’s approved tariff hike