Alerting people that rolling blackouts might cause a food scarcity

The Consumer Goods Council of South Africa's CEOs have urged the government to act quickly to avert a possible scarcity of food, medicine, and other necessities as a result of rolling blackouts.

In an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa, they made the request.The CEOs assert that it is financially unviable for Eskom to maintain its facilities using emergency power generators.They have advised putting the existing plans into action as soon as possible.The letter is being delivered as Ramaphosa gets ready to give his State of the Nation Address this evening at Cape Town City Hall.The CEO of the council is Zinhle Tyikwe.

"Load shedding has had an impact across the nation, even in terms of supply chain effectiveness. It will have an impact on the producer who is supplying these goods, the supplier or distributor who must ensure that the cold chain is maintained, and finally it will have an impact on the retailers. Yes, members are required to have generators, as I mentioned before, but with the increase in load shedding stages that we saw last year and as early as this month, the cost is rising and it becomes difficult to manage to ensure that you do not pass this along to the consumer. Therefore, it's critical that the government comprehends that.

On the energy problem, experts comment

Experts have cautioned, however, that the government cannot use the nation's disaster management statute to address ongoing issues caused by humans.

They claim that doing so puts the constitution and human rights at risk and will invite widespread corruption.

The expert panel also cautions that the nation's present energy issue cannot be solved by declaring a state of emergency.