President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to engage with premiers and local government on the deepening energy crisis.

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde says a special meeting of the President’s Coordinating Council (PCC) has been called for today.

The meeting comes days after Winde wrote to the president appealing for him to be transparent about the extent of the crisis and to provide a detailed plan with timeframes to restore the lights. The premier is hoping that urgency will emerge from the PCC meeting and that President Ramaphosa will address the country after this engagement.

Since last year South Africa has been gripped by intensified load shedding – the worse it has experienced in the more than decade since the imposition of this practice. It has heavily disrupted the performance of small to medium businesses as well as the lives of ordinary South Africans and battered the economy.