Ramaphosa's power reform plan - SA can be 'cautiously optimistic'

President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement of sweeping reforms to stabilise the power grid and get the country quite literally out of the dark has been welcomed as a necessary and urgent step in the right direction. Connie Mulder, head of the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI) told BizNews the crux of the president's plan is to decentralise power generation - a policy shift that couldn't come soon enough. Mulder believes this change in tack follows immense pressure from political parties, civil society organisations and think tanks after almost 15 years of government inaction. Mulder says he's cautiously optimistic, but make no mistake, he said: "this has riled up a lot of vested interests. If South Africa does move outside of Eskom for generation there are a lot of cadres who are set to lose a lot of money and we should expect resistance to this from all sectors, especially your more left-leaning trade unions which will be up in arms completely." Many of the reforms announced by Ramaphosa mirror what Mulder suggested in a previous interview with BizNews which can be accessed here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices