By Tiisetso Motsoeneng

Property developers have joined the fray over Eskom's rolling power cuts, saying property development is being severely hampered.

"Power outages are threatening to slow down, if not entirely stop, the rate of property development in the city and country," warns Neil Gopal, CEO of the South African Property Owners' Association (Sapoa).

The representative body of the commercial and industrial property industry is seeking answers from the City of Johannesburg and government's Department of Minerals and Energy Affairs regarding future developments of energy-intensive projects.

"The industry needs to know - and urgently - how the City of Johannesburg is planning to deal with the situation. What will happen to future development if City Power cannot provide additional electricity?" Gopal is meeting with the City of Johannesburg's Development Planning and Urban Management executive director Philip Harrison to discuss the situation.

He will also be meeting with the Department of Minerals and Energy Affairs on 23rd January 2008. Eskom's nationwide load shedding or controlled power cuts to reduce

demand have frustrated businesses and individuals, and is set to continue for between five and eight years. Eskom has said it needed South Africa to reduce its power consumption by about 20%, raising concerns that construction of support structure for the 2010 Fifa World Cup would be hampered.

Meanwhile government said on Tuesday that it "is confident that a solution is already under way" following a Cabinet meeting with Eskom's CEO, Jacob Maroga.

It is likely that a special announcement on the power crisis will be made next week after Cabinet's adoption of the consolidated plan, which is likely to include a financial boost after the regulator restricted tariff increases to 14.2%.