Viewers tuned in between power cuts to hear the reactions of the nation’s talking heads to the ongoing power cuts drama, with the government’s recent apology and pledge to soon put an end to the rolling blackouts seemingly doing little to calm frustrations.

ICYMI: Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly delivered a televised statement yesterday to apologize to the people and lay out a plan to end power cuts for the summer months by July to and eventually do away with them for good. We have a full rundown of the government’s plan to keep the light on in the news well, above.

"We shouldn't rely on a single country for our gas supplies," Sherif Amer said on Yahduth fi Masr (watch, runtime: 5:14), referencing comments by Madbouly that the surprise week-long extension of additional outages this week came as a result of a gas field in a “neighboring country” being offline for a 12-hour period, Madbouly said, without specifying the country. Ahmed Moussa presented a similar argument to Amer on Ala Mas'oulety, telling viewers that "What happened yesterday taught us an important lesson... I don’t want Egypt and its people to be at anyone's mercy" (watch, runtime: 21:12).

El Homsani called in to calm energy security concerns: Cabinet spokesperson Mohamed El Homsani joined Moussa over the phone to reiterate Madbouly’s comments that "yesterday's events were due to a technical fault at one of the wells in a country in the Eastern Mediterranean region." Homsani emphasized that "Egypt is not at anyone's mercy and can import gas and mazut from any producing country, so there's no need for concern."

"The electricity crisis won't end in 2024," former Oil Minister Osama Kamal phoned in to tell Sherif Amer (watch, runtime: 5:02 | 9:22), adding that ”we lagged behind in diversifying our energy sources, and addressing this will take at least six months." Kamal noted that while power plants have the capacity to double the country's energy needs, the load shedding crisis is due to a fuel shortage.

Tags: