While the lights stay off in the country, the lights at Nasrec stay on Photo Pexels
Lights are on at Nasrec while the rest of South Africa sits in darkness with ramped up loadshedding. The ANC denies having requested for an exemption, but City Power says it received a request from SAPS Natjoints to exclude Nasrec.
When asked to confirm whether the conference is being exempt from loadshedding, Pule Mabe avoids a direct answer – shifting the focus onto the venue hosts instead. @CityPowerJhb earlier confirmed the venue was exempt due to the presence of senior government officials. #ANC55NC pic.twitter.com/CgKbYg5zQl
— Salaamedia (@salaamedia) December 17, 2022
The request was made in lieu of senior government officials and the president being present at the venue for the party’s 55th national elective conference. It coincides with temporary reprieve granted by Eskom to the City of Johannesburg after floods swept parts of the city.
“It is due to the presence of high security risk persons such as the President of the country, deputy-president, and the government Ministers,” said City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena.
Meanwhile, ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe told the media at a press briefing on Saturday evening that it was up to the venue host – Johannesburg Expo Centre – to decide whether it wanted to seek an exemption from the power cuts.
“What the facilities that we hire to run our events do…it is an independent decision that they take outside the African National Congress,” he said.
Mabe dismissed the notion of his party ever requesting an exemption, saying they were ready to stand with the South African public under all circumstances.
On Friday – the first day of the conference – power utility Eskom pushed load shedding back to stage 6 following multiple breakdowns at its power stations.
It said the escalation was necessitated by the failure of eight generating units overnight and the excessive reliance on open-cycle gas turbines.
