South Africans fear energy crisis could hinder investment pledges

South Africa has managed to attract new investment commitments from investors worth about 84 billion US dollars over the next five years.

President Cyril Ramaphosa met with investors as part of the fifth South Africa Investment Conference. The Chief Executive Officer of the South African Breweries, Richard Rivett-Carnac explains that their investment pledge is expected to create forty thousand jobs in the country.

“ We are committing R5.8 billion and will invest the full amount by the end of this year. It’s primarily for the expansion of our brewery in Gqeberha. It was a project that was started last year and will be completed this year. And this is at the back of last year’s investment commitment to invest in 4 point five.,”

While President Ramaphosa has put forward his multibillion-dollar US investment target, South Africans on the street believe that he needs to focus on eradicating electricity blackouts in order to boost investor confidence.

“I feel like President Ramaphosa should be focusing on sorting out our electricity problem because in terms of business, we are losing more than we are profiting because of the extra provisions we have to make for electricity,” explains Miles Thomas, a South African citizen

Kavish Ramanand, also a South African citizen raises concerns regarding the expenditure of the funds injected by investors.

“If people are willing to invest then that’s great. The first thing they need to look at is the issue of corruption and protecting the funds. I think also load-shedding.” said Ramanand

Cebo Ngema, a South African citizen insists that President Ramaphosa’s energy investment plan will turn around the country.

“They can invest and the electricity crisis will be alright meaning they can continue with the business. Not everything is about electricity. We do have generators now to boost businesses,”

The South Africa Investment was first introduced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2018 to help attract more investors to the country.