The once electricity-rich nation of South Africa is suffering its worst year of power outages yet, as the country plunges into its deepest energy crisis ever, with state utility Eskom declaring “Stage 6” load-shedding this week.
Ferial Haffajee of the Daily Maverick, South Africa has suffered nationwide power outages for roughly 100 out of the 260 days of the year thus far, nearly 40% of the calendar year, making 2022 the worst year for power outages.Just before 4 am on Sunday, 18 September, Eskom CEO André de Ruyter’s phone rang.
Load-shedding means that electricity will be unavailable except to those wealthy enough to afford diesel generators or alternative energy sources such as solar power. The price of diesel, like the price of other fuels, has soared on worldwide markets in recent months, making the cost of load-shedding ever greater. Moreover, the constant switching on and off of power causes wear and tear on energy infrastructure to accelerate, making the crisis worse.
For the past decade, Eskom — which provided cheap and abundant power 20 years ago — has forced South Africans into darkness. The causes: aggressive affirmative action policies that pushed out skilled white engineers; politicized hiring processes that saw top jobs filled by ruling party cronies rather than qualified executives; and corruption that saw the company stripped of money and resources.
The country’s leaders are scrambling to privatize municipal power generation and to build new power plants. However, while South Africa has nuclear energy technology and an abundance of coal power, it is a signatory to the Paris Climate Accords, and international investors and donor countries are primarily interested in funding renewable power sources, which are several years away from being reliable alternatives.
The ruling party, the African National Congress , could lose significant support in the next general election in 2024 as a result of the power cuts.
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