Premier chairs first Premier’s Coordinating Forum of current term in office

On Tuesday, 20 August 2024, Premier Alan Winde chaired a meeting of the Premier’s Coordinating Forum (PCF), the first of his current term in office.

The PCF is an important consultative intergovernmental forum that brings the provincial government and municipalities closer together to address pressing issues affecting our residents. The meeting was held at the Beaufort West Youth Hub.

“It is wonderful to be here in the Central Karoo and for us as government to have a chance to engage with each other and to hear directly from the residents about what the most pressing issues are for them. We must work radically with fierce urgency to improve the lives of our residents now. Here in Beaufort West, you can feel the impact of economic hardship on communities and at the same time the willingness of residents to work with us to find solutions,” said Premier Alan Winde as he opened proceedings.

He stressed that all spheres of government must prioritise:

• Making the Western Cape and all its communities safer;
• Further cutting red tape to make it easier to do business and enable more jobs;
• Improving the efficiency and speed of infrastructure development;
• Growing the economy to create more jobs.

He continued, “The PCF is a vital platform where we can learn from each other. This PCF is of particular importance. It comes just 3 months after the national and provincial elections and allows us to align and streamline our numerous programmes with the Western Cape Provincial Strategic Plan 2025-2030. We must translate the spirit of the Government of National Unity (GNU) into tangible plans of action at the provincial and municipal levels that work for our residents.”

Energy

The forum was given an update on the Western Cape Energy Resilience programme, the provincial government’s blueprint for developing the Western Cape’s short and long-term energy resilience.

The Premier told the PCF, “When load shedding was at its worst, we all rallied to find solutions. But even with the current respite from national load shedding, we cannot afford to take our foot off the pedal, because our energy supply right now is based off an ageing coal-powered fleet.”

“We must invest now in renewable energy, and attract more international investment into our region to facilitate our move away from harmful coal-based power. The impact of not decarbonising our economy is that goods produced for export, using the existing energy mix, which is predominately fossil fuel based, will be subjected to a carbon tax, the extent of which could make our export products uncompetitive. So the need to turn to renewable energy and in particular renewable energy based in the Western Cape, is critical for us as a region.

Eskom

Representatives from Eskom gave a presentation at the PCF on various matters, among them the impact of recent severe weather events on the utility’s power supply capabilities. Premier Winde, the provincial Cabinet and municipalities expressed their frustrations with the slow pace of Eskom to respond to power outages following severe weather events. Eskom committed to working more diligently to communicate with residents during these outages and improving repair turnaround times as severe weather events become more frequent.

Pre-paid electricity meters updating

The PCF was given an update on the updating of pre-paid electricity meters. The Western Cape is on track to update pre-paid electricity meters before they stop working. South Africa’s current pre-paid electricity meter software, which generates unique recharge codes, is due to expire on 24 November 2024. More than 95% of all meters in the province have been updated so far.

Disaster Management

The significant funding shortfall for the province's disaster management capabilities was raised as a key risk to the province’s future response to disasters. The Western Cape is still owed over R6 billion from National Government, which is desperately needed to respond to the series of natural disasters that have hit the province in 2023 and 2024.

“When we do not receive adequate disaster funding when provincial disasters are declared, we must find the funds elsewhere, often from our maintenance budgets, which are under more and more pressure. This is incredibly difficult given the severely constrained budgetary environment we find ourselves in,” warned Premier Winde.

He reiterated that the provincial government and local governments must learn from every disaster, in both how to prevent reoccurrences and how to better manage incidents. The Premier praised the power of partnerships in responding to disasters, “It does not matter what sphere of government you come from, we are all facing the same pressures, and we must find ways to do better. We must be more agile. But we will continue to fight for the funds still owed to us.”

The Premier concluded, “Climate change affects every municipality in the Western Cape. The disasters that are caused by the climate change crisis challenge us all and so we must keep learning.”