The DA leader Mmusi Maimane, flanked by several DA mayors, announced plans the party believes are sustainable solutions to South Africa's electricity problems.

If the Democratic Alliance had its way, municipalities it runs would bypass Eskom as an electricity supplier and enter into energy generation agreements with independent power producers.

And the party is so adamant that this could be a solution to the country's electricity generation problems that all DA mayors will be writing to the Minister of Energy, Jeff Radebe, requesting a "determination in terms of Section 34 of the Electricity Regulation Act 4 of 2006".

"Section 34 of the Act empowers the Minister of Energy to allow municipalities to enter into a tender procedure which is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective, with the private sector, to provide for new generation capacity," DA leader Mmusi Maimane said.

"Every DA-run municipality in the country will explore the viability and sustainability of adopting a by-law to regulate Small Scale Embedded Generation such as solar PV at businesses and residential homes. This would allow individuals with the capacity to generate their own energy to feed surplus energy into the grid and in turn credit their account," Maimane added.

These were...