
Stellenbosch mayor, Gesie van Deventer, says the Stellenbosch Municipality started fighting back in January 2021 to protect residents and businesses from loadshedding.
Van Deventer says the municipality has determined that the town needs 75MW of electricity, during peak times, to completely avoid the implementation of loadshedding.
She says the ultimate goal is to, in the near future, be completely independent of Eskom for electricity.
Van Deventer says the municipality supports the DA’s call for Eskom to be declared a state of disaster.
She agrees that drastic change is needed at the power utility to restore the country’s generation capabilities to full capacity.
The Democratic Alliance this week called on the government to declare a state of disaster at power-utility, Eskom.
The party says ridding the country of loadshedding is a whole of society approach anchored on making energy-generation South Africa’s biggest priority over the next 5 years.
DA spokesperson for Energy, Kevin Mileham says loadshedding has robbed unemployed South Africans of the chance of finding employment.
Mileham says the power interruptions also damage the country’s reputation as an investment destination.
Read the mayor’s complete statement here.
Related articles:
- Cape Town aims to become the first loadshedding-free city in South Africa.
- Ramaphosa: Mining sector has an important role to play in South Africa’s just energy transition.
- Eskom says it made land available for the erection of renewable-energy production plants.
GETTING THINGS DONE – #Stellenbosch on track to keep the lights on. Mayor van Deventer installed the first set of solar panels on municipal properties today.
Read more here: https://t.co/kLT9Psv7GN pic.twitter.com/yWvaxbFYS5
— Stellenbosch Municipality 🍇 (@StellMun) April 6, 2022

Democratic Alliance leader, John Steenhuisen says the speaker of the National Assembly has until close of business today to respond to his request that Ministers be recused from the vote of no-confidence in Cabinet, scheduled for Wednesday.
Steenhuisen says he wrote to Speaker, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula about the matter.
He says he also urged the Speaker that a roll-call system be used during the voting process.
Read more here.
Related articles:
- NA Speaker shoots down a request by the DA for a secret ballot during the motion of no confidence in Cabinet.
- DA leader John Steenhuisen has tabled a motion of no confidence in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet.
The DA has written to the Speaker of the National Assembly to request that Cabinet Ministers be recused from voting in their own Motion of No Confidence and we have requested that the Speaker use a manual roll-call procedure for this vote. – @jsteenhuisen https://t.co/uSKicVYilX
— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) March 28, 2022

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is heading to court to stop the government from extending the National State of Disaster month after month.
DA leader John Steenhuisen made the announcement this week and said all indications are that the government will continue to extend the State of Disaster indefinitely.
The DA leader says that if and when the government moves lockdown regulations to permanent legislation, his party will mount a legal challenge to those too.
Steenhuisen says the DA will continue to fight for the rights of South Africans and oppose all of the government’s efforts to further keep the country’s citizens under never-ending lockdowns.
He says the continuous and repeated extension of the regulations does more harm than good.
Read more here.
Related articles:
- Calls for and against lifting of national state of disaster.
- Millions of South Africans will lose access to monthly Covid-19 allowance if national state of disaster is lifted.
- Country’s response to Covid-19 pandemic influenced by high levels of immunity seen in the population.
🚨 The DA is going to court to end the lockdown!
"I have instructed our attorneys to bring an urgent court challenge to the unreasonable extension of the State of Disaster.
The lockdown itself must end. It can’t just become permanent…" – @jsteenhuisen #EndLockdownNow pic.twitter.com/BaYL3a4NFj
— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) March 17, 2022

Geordin Hill-Lewis has been inaugurated as Cape Town Mayor. At 34-years-old he is also the youngest Mayor ever to be elected to the position.
At the inaugural city council meeting, Hill-Lewis was elected with a majority vote of 141 out of 224 votes.
A seasoned politician, Hill-Lewis joined the Democratic Alliance while he was in Grade 12 at Edgemead High School. He also helped establish the party’s UCT branch of the Democratic Alliance Students Organisation (DASO). The new Cape Town Mayor made tackling poverty one of his key priorities when he delivered his first speech in council chambers.
I am today proud to announce that the first major commitment of this administration is to increase our allocation to free basic services by over R600 million in the next financial year.
This constitutes a 20% increase in our city’s investment in the free basic services that vulnerable residents rely on the most. It will increase the total amount spent by the City every year on free basic services for the poorest residents from R3.1 billion to R3.7 billion.
Hill-Lewis added he wants to hit the ground running: “Tomorrow, on day one, I am going straight to Khayelitsha and Phoenix, where there are serious challenges with sewage infrastructure. We know that sewers will occasionally block and pump stations will sometimes break down. But when these problems are reported, they must be attended to with the same speed and service excellence no matter where you live in Cape Town.”
It is the single greatest honour of my life to be officially elected as the Mayor of the City of Cape Town. Thank you for placing your faith in me, I will make sure this faith has not been misplaced. Now, our work starts to make Cape Town a beacon of hope for SA. #MayorGHL pic.twitter.com/Xvkwh9TTZP
— Geordin Hill-Lewis (@geordinhl) November 18, 2021
Alderman Felicity Purchase was re-elected as the Speaker of Council and former Springbok rugby player turned politician Eddie Andrews was nominated and elected by councillors to the Deputy-Mayor post.
Hill-Lews is yet to announce the councillors he has selected to be a part of his Mayoral Committee.

The Electoral Commission of South Africa says only three political parties declared donations above the R100 000 threshold.
During a press-briefing yesterday, the IEC revealed that only the ANC, DA, and Action-SA declared individual donations of more than this threshold.
When questioned about the EFF not reporting any donations, IEC commissioner, Dr Nomsa Masuku had this to say.
The EEF is one of 502 political parties that have not disclosed their funders as per the requirement of the new Political Party Funding Act.
Chief Executive for Party Funding, George Mahlangu said, of these 502 parties 108 parties have been written to by the IEC to request that they comply.
In March 2018, the EFF was the only party that opposed the bill when it was before the National Assembly (NA).
View the full briefing here.
Related articles:
- IEC: Voters can now register online.
- IEC to employ technology to help voters register for 2021 elections.
Find the published #PartyFunding declarations reports, available in PDF and Excel format, at https://t.co/6u4Q9Ia2dI. Q1 2021/22 report is available at https://t.co/3b09ldXbmt.
— IEC South Africa (@IECSouthAfrica) September 9, 2021
The Commission is pleased to publicly release the 2021/22 first quarter Party Funding Disclosures Report. This public pronouncement is in terms of the Political Party Funding Act 6 of 2018 and its supporting regulations. https://t.co/tgp0JfANRm
— IEC South Africa (@IECSouthAfrica) September 9, 2021