President Cyril Ramaphosa will outline what actions South Africa is taking to tackle its economically debilitating electricity crisis when he addresses investors at the fifth South African Investment Conference on Thursday, Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya has confirmed.

The event will take place amid an intense period of rotational power cuts, with Eskom having declared Stage 5 and 6 loadshedding for Wednesday and Thursday, as well as serious disruptions to the supply of electricity to residents and businesses in parts of Pretoria, including car manufacturer Ford, following the catastrophic collapse of seven power pylons on Sunday night, possibly precipitated by the vandalism of a pylon along the N4 East freeway.

It will also take place after the International Monetary Fund officially slashed its 2023 growth outlook for South Africa from 1.1% to 0.1%, having stated in its Staff Concluding Statement in late March following its 2023 Article IV Mission that the downgrade was mainly owing to a significant increase in the intensity of power cuts, as well as weaker commodity prices.

“The President will deliver a very clear message tomorrow with respect to what we have done and what we are doing to resolve this energy crisis,” Magwenya said during a briefing.

He added that the address would also highlight “pockets of opportunity for investors to exploit”, including the potential to take advantage of the removal of the 100 MW threshold on the size of embedded generation projects that can proceed without a licence, even when connecting to the grid and selling to third parties.

Ramaphosa would also likely highlight the collaborative efforts under way between government, business and labour to tackle both the electricity crisis, as well as the crisis unfolding across the country’s freight logistics networks as a result of a lack of availability of locomotives on key export corridors, as well as ongoing cable theft.

The President met with representatives of organised labour from the ports and rail system on Wednesday following a similar interaction with South Africa’s largest exporters on April 5 and a meeting with the Transnet board and executive management on March 28.

It is anticipated that a crisis committee similar to the National Energy Crisis Committee, established last year in light of intensifying loadshedding, will be established in an effort to address the collapse of freight logistics services.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ramaphosa met with several business leaders where it was again agreed that there was a need to accelerate resolution of the energy, logistics, crime and corruption crises undermining growth and employment, as well as investor confidence.

Government was nevertheless confident of meeting the R1.2-trillion five-year investment target set by Ramaphosa in 2018, when the first South African Investment Conference was hosted, with commitments of R 1.14-trillion having already been announced.

Magwenya said the target was likely to be met or exceeded and confirmed that the President would be setting a new goal for the period ahead, despite growing scepticism over the value of such targets and an increasingly jaded attitude towards the investment conference itself. The new target would also be announced notwithstanding high levels of uncertainty about the electoral prospects of the governing African National Congress in 2024.

Magwenya reported that, as of March 31, 83 of the 231 projects announced at previous editions of the South African Investment Conference, with a combined value of R170-billion, had been completed.

He added that investment flows of R450-billion had also been achieved since the first edition of the conference, with 77 projects under construction and 28 at early stages of implementation.