Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has singled out the City of Tshwane’s Rooiwal Power Station as one of two facilities that will generate more electricity and thus reduce load shedding.
Lesufi made the commitment when he delivered his maiden State of the Province Address on Monday, allocating more than R1.2 billion to deal with the energy crisis in Gauteng.
He delivered his speech at the Gauteng Legislature which sat at the Joburg City Hall, where he also bade farewell to outgoing Tshwane mayor Randall Williams.
He promised to give attention to the state of the municipality’s finances, which recently came under sharp focus following a damning report by Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke.
Lesufi said the energy crisis remained one of the biggest challenges to the province’s accelerated economic recovery. He said his government welcomed the declaration of the National State of Disaster by President Cyril Ramaphosa during his State of the Nation Address two weeks ago.
He said Gauteng electricity deficit was focused at 4 058 megavolt-ampere mps in 2025, slightly high given Eskom’s inability to generate more from its current fleet.
“As Gauteng, we have been working on finding solutions to the energy crisis. We have established an energy crisis response team that engages with the National Energy Committee and works with local government and energy experts.
“We acted with urgency and convened the inaugural energy solutions expo to solicit views on what exists in the market, with the idea of creating partnerships to assist in finding lasting solutions.
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