/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

President Jacob Zuma has received an update report on the performance of the Presidency Energy Saving Campaign for its contribution towards energy savings in the country.

In 2015, the President launched the Presidency and Government-wide Energy Saving Campaign as some of the efforts to ensure that government-owned buildings are energy efficient.

In the efforts to save energy, the Union Buildings in Pretoria installed additional motion sensors and lighting retrofits saving an additional 330, 432 kilo-Watt-hour (kWh) in 2015/2016.

The Presidency energy saving report shows that the Pretoria office has in the 2015/2016 financial year saved accumulated 3, 325, 727 kilo-Watt-hour (kWh) and
9, 905 kilo-Volt-Ampere (kVA).  The office was therefore able to save R3, 762, 835.13.

The Cape Town office, Tuynhuys, under the Parliamentary Precinct has in the 2015/2016 financial year saved accumulated 3, 428, 923 kilo-Watt-hour (kWh) and
8, 636 kilo-Volt-Ampere (kVA). The office was able to save R3, 779, 298.43.

In both offices, Presidency has in total, saved accumulated 6, 754, 650 kilo-Watt-hour (kWh) and 18, 541 kilo-Volt-Ampere (kVA) and also saved R7, 542, 133.56 to date.

These energy savings are an equivalent to the energy supply for 1,406 low income houses for a year.

“Last year, the country was faced with a lot of power outages prompting government to further strengthen its role in addressing energy shortages. Energy security is very important to our economy. The Presidency performance in saving energy thus far is indeed encouraging and proves that we are indeed moving in a right direction to save energy”, said President.

President Zuma added that the Presidency will also in this financial year optimise energy consuming systems and their maintenance for energy savings.

“We further appeal to government departments, private sector and all South Africans to continue to engage in energy saving drives. Working together and making simple efforts towards saving energy will help us to move South Africa forward”.

The Department of Public Works is currently ensuring that all government-owned buildings are energy efficient.

Earlier this Month, President Zuma undertook a monitoring and evaluation visit to Eskom’s Head office Megawatt in Sunninghill as part of government’s concerted efforts to provide support to state owned companies. Through such interventions, that the country has not experienced any load shedding for nearly nine consecutive months.

Issued by the President