CAPE TOWN - Western Cape MEC of Infrastructure Tertuis Simmers said poor and needy households in the province would benefit the most in his department's R61 million budget for energy.
During premier Alan Winde's weekly Digicon on Thursday, Simmers said R24 million would be set aside to install solar geysers to households like these to lessen the impact of load shedding.Simmers said that a further R9.8 million was allocated to the Stellenbosch Municipality in its efforts to mitigate the effects of the ongoing power cuts, adding that they had to dig deep into their pockets to find immediate solutions to the energy crisis.
Moreover on the power front, Simmers pointed out, the plan was to also make government buildings more energy resilient. "Key government sites and buildings will benefit from our further initiatives into the New Year. Firstly, we will be focusing on battery storage systems - which will be rolled out for all suitable sites where PV [photovoltaic voltage] is currently installed across our general buildings as the provincial government."
Simmers urged civil society and businesses to work together with the provincial government to overcome the energy crisis.