Cape Town and Western Cape businesses and residents faithfully monitor the webpage to keep track of real-time data. After all, Cape Town is South Africa’s version of California’s Silicon Valley where the country’s tech giants form the country’s largest and most important technological and cultural hub.
How Load Shedding Affected Cape Town’s Previous Industries
Actually and currently, a plan being brewed by the SA government and private businesses is already on the table. The immediate goal is to reinvent and develop Cape Town as the “Tech Capital of South Africa.” While Cape Town used to attract multitudes of tourists from different parts of the world, the industry has since regressed with the occurrence of the global pandemic and the increasing occurrences of load shedding events.
Also, Cape Town’s status as a tax haven drew many foreign investigative actions that drove away financial investors who maintained secret accounts in the country’s financial hub.
Rather than stick to Cape Town’s previous tourism industry and financial investment services, the city’s leaders have decided to shift their focus on building Cape Town as a digital technology and service-based economy. The confidence over Cape Town’s capability to emerge as a valuable technology hub of South Africa, lies mainly on the fact that the city is now included in the list of the top 100 start-up ecosystems. The recognition is for the city’s world-class digital environmenn. The merger of local Cape Town and West Cape resources and talent, presents numerous commercial and social opportunities for digital technology.
Will Pres. Ramaphosa Make Good on His Promise to End Load Shedding?
As there is no doubt that the city has a competitive edge in developing digital technologies, incumbent SA President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa voiced his support for plans to develop Cape Town as a tech and cultural hub.
Pres. Ramaphosa announced plans of
Invoking the national disaster status to force immediate implementation of solutions to put an end to Eskom’s load shedding strategy. Actually, a program called Energy Action Plan is now in place to tackle emergency issues. As it is, load shedding detriments have been crippling the country’s various economies. Actually, EAP proved effective in dealing with the 2020 global pandemic and recently in the terrible flooding that devastated the province of KwaZulu-Natal in the eastern sector.
Energy experts have high hopes that President Ramaphosa’s plan to declare a state of national emergency in South Africa will make the following action plans achievable:
Eliminate the government’s lengthy procurement system under EAP management,
Speed up coordination and collaboration between various government agencies, power utility companies, energy regulators, stakeholders and the public as a whole.