JOHANNESBURG

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has canceled his visit to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland to deal with a crippling energy crisis and other pressing issues in his country.

In a Twitter post on Sunday, Vincent Magwenya, the presidential spokesman, said Ramaphosa was convening a meeting with leaders of political parties represented in parliament, the National Energy Crisis Committee and power utility Eskom’s board.

South Africa is currently facing its worst electricity crisis in decades with rolling blackouts of up to six hours a day.

Eskom, which generates over 90% of the country's electricity, has been struggling to meet demand and has been implementing different stages of outages for weeks.

Most of the output from the utility's aging power plant array is coal-fired, with the facilities in need of maintenance.

The 53rd annual meeting of the WEF starts Monday and will bring together more than 2,700 leaders from 130 countries including 50 heads of state or government. It will be held under the theme “Cooperation in a Fragmented World.”