Cape Town and Johannesburg have come together to end their reliance on Eskom-generated power as soon as possible amid continuing blackouts this week.

Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said a delegation from both cities met to discuss a plan which will be put into full operation as soon as load-shedding above stage 4 is announced.

The Johannesburg delegation included the mayoral committee member for environment and infrastructure services Michael Sun, acting CEO of City Power Tshifularo Mashava, director of energy at City Power Meyrick Ramatlo and other officials.

Hill-Lewis said the delegations toured the Steenbras Hydro Pumped Storage Scheme which supplements Cape Town's electricity supply during periods of peak demand.

“This will allow up to two stages of load-shedding relief,” said Hill-Lewis in a statement. 

“The city has been 'saving' the capacity of Steenbras by not offering residents load-shedding relief for the past few days. This is because of the need to urgently use Steenbras at full capacity to protect infrastructure.”

He said the past stage 6 blackouts revealed the critical infrastructure — from electricity assets to water and sanitation plants and facilities and communications towers — was under severe threat.

According to Hill-Lewis, there is a possibility of stage 8 which would mean serious threats to substations, circuit breakers, wastewater treatment plants, water pumps, cellphone towers and other infrastructure.

“The long downtime will severely raise the risk of theft and vandalism of copper cables and other assets,” he said.

He said both cities agree they have no other option but to urgently end reliance on Eskom-generated power and implement measures designed to reduce demand.

"In the course of sharing best practice with Johannesburg colleagues this week, Cape Town will be drawing on Johannesburg’s research and expertise in respect of demand side management.

“If high stages of load-shedding continue, the threat to critical infrastructure and the suffering that will result from economic recession will, in my view, constitute an emergency similar to Cape Town’s 2017/18 drought and the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Hill-Lewis.

“We will seek legal advice on whether it is appropriate to force the city to comply with all of the onerous requirements of procurement processes imposed by national legislation in these emergency circumstances.”

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