During the State of the Nation Adress (SONA) by President Cyril Ramaphosa last year, he promised that the government will address loadshedding crisis with the roll-out of rooftop solar panels. The President also promised that his government will focus more resources on resolving electricity crisis. This were never implemented instead; the country was plunged into more than 330 days of loadshedding in 2023. Tonight, Ramaphosa who was delivering the last SONA hosted by the sixth parliament at the Cape Town City Hall, promised South Africans that the end of loadshedding is near.

Ramaphosa blamed the failures of his administration to the state capture cabal. "Perhaps the greatest damage was caused during the era of state capture. For a decade, individuals at the highest levels of the state conspired with private individuals to take over and repurpose state owned companies, law enforcement agencies and other public institutions. He said: "In some cases, these activities were enabled by local and multinational companies. Billions of rands that were meant to meet the needs of ordinary South Africans were stolen. Confidence in our country was badly eroded. Public institutions were severely weakened. The effects of state capture continue to be felt across society, from the shortage of freight locomotives to crumbling public services, from the poor performance of our power stations to failed development projects," he said.

Ramaphosa said that his government has implemented a clear plan to end loadshedding through a national crisis committee. "We have implemented sweeping regulatory reforms to enable private investment in electricity generation, with more than 120 new private energy projects now in development. These are phenomenal developments that are driving the restructuring of our electricity sector in line with what many other economies have done to increase competitiveness and bring down prices," he said. The President added that through all of these actions, the government is confident that the worst is behind us, and that the end of load shedding is finally within reach. "But we are not stopping there. To ensure that we never face a similar crisis ever again, we are reforming our energy system to make it more competitive, sustainable and reliable into the future," he said, adding that the ANC led government is going to build more than 14,000 km of new transmission lines to accommodate renewable energy over the coming years. "To fast-track this process, we will enable private investment in transmission infrastructure through a variety of innovative investment models. Last year, we tabled the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill to support the restructuring of Eskom and establish a competitive electricity market," he said.

Ramaphosa further said that the number of South Africans in employment has slightly doubled since the dawn of democracy. "The number of South Africans in employment increased from 8 million in 1994 to over 16.7 million now. Over the last two years, the number of jobs being created has been increasing every quarter and we now have more people in employment than before the pandemic," he added. South Africa had a population of 43 million in 1994 while according to the Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data, today the population is nearing 61 million. In conclusion, Ramaphosa quoted the late Nelson Mandela: "Like Madiba, South Africans must keep moving, always forward, always onwards, towards the country of our dreams. Always believing that victory is certain,". 

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