In a major announcement, the Minister of Electricity and Energy, Dr. Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, has declared that South Africa is on the cusp of eliminating load shedding, promising the public will not experience power cuts during the upcoming summer season.
The bold commitment was made during a media briefing where Eskom presented its 2025/26 Summer Outlook. Minister Ramokgopa stated that the utility’s focus has been on stabilizing leadership at power stations and improving plant performance, bringing the nation closer to eradicating both load shedding and load reduction.
“We are confident that going to the summer, we will not have load shedding,” the Minister said. “Ultimately, our ambition is to ensure that we talk of load shedding in the past tense.”
However, the promising update on energy generation was delivered against a backdrop of intense pressure on consumers from high electricity prices. The Minister acknowledged that a new and urgent crisis of affordability now confronts the nation, disproportionately affecting lower-income households, eroding the disposable income of the middle class, and undermining the competitiveness of businesses.
A significant contributor to this pressure is a recent error by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA), which the Minister stated has resulted in the need for an additional R54 billion to be recovered from consumers through tariffs.
Minister Ramokgopa outlined a multi-pronged strategy to address the cost of electricity. Key interventions include tackling the high cost of primary energy and integrating new, cheaper, and cleaner sources of generation into the national grid. He also mentioned cushioning the poor through initiatives like the basic electricity allowance.
The government has begun an internal review and plans to engage with the public on solutions, aiming to announce a new pricing policy by the first half of next year. “You can have electricity, but if it’s not affordable, it’s as good as not having it,” the Minister stated.
Alongside affordability, the Minister highlighted the critical need to expand and modernize the national transmission grid. He revealed that Eskom’s computations show a requirement for 14,000 kilometers of new grid infrastructure at an estimated cost of R440 billion to unlock new generation capacity, particularly from renewable sources in the Cape provinces where grid capacity is exhausted.
The first phase of this project is already underway, with the private sector invited to participate in seven initial projects. This effort is expected to unlock approximately 3,200 MW of new, greener, and cheaper generation capacity, which will help dampen future price increases.
Minister Ramokgopa confirmed that work to permanently eradicate load reduction—targeted power cuts in areas with excessive illegal connections—is also being prioritized, with a pledge to address it “in every village, street, and suburb” within the next 12 to 18 months.
While the summer promises relief from blackouts, the government’s focus is now sharply turning to making that reliable electricity affordable for all South Africans.