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The Western Cape Cabinet will convene during a special session this afternoon to discuss the implications of Level 6 load shedding, as announced by Eskom today.

Premier Alan Winde said: “With the country moved to stage 6 load shedding, as a responsible Government I will convene a Provincial Cabinet meeting today for planning purposes, to ensure services continue to be delivered across all our critical platforms.”

Anton Bredell, Western Cape Minster of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning said he supported Eskom CEO, Andre de Ruyter in calling everyone to save electricity where possible. This comes after Eskom increased load shedding from Level 5, announced on the 17th, to Level 6, today.

“I am supporting De Ruyter in his plea to all municipalities to carefully manage electricity usage. Please make sure there are no streetlights burning during the day, or any other non-essential systems that can be switched off right now,” Bredell said.

Bredell said the Provincial Disaster Management Centre is on high alert and liaising with municipalities to provide a coordinated risk response. “We are monitoring diesel levels for back up systems, security at critical infrastructure, and the situation at hospitals and old-age homes.”

Because Eskom cannot at this stage say for how long high levels of load shedding will be implemented, we must ensure essential systems that provide for water and sewage can function on backup power for the near future, Bredell said.

“The public also has a huge role to play in this situation: Municipal water and sewage pumps are examples of essential basic services that rely on electricity, so please use tap water sparingly. Limit toilet flushes to the minimum. Switch off all unnecessary appliances. If we all do the above, it will create some space for Eskom to affect the repairs it needs to attend to,” Bredell said.

Issued by Western Cape Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning