Power shortages cost South Africa as much as R118-billion last year, a drain on the economy that’s set to continue for two to three years unless urgent action is taken, a new study has found.
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The ANC’s top decision makers have met to discuss how to deal with ailing state-owned companies whose deteriorating finances have emboldened critics of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
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Eskom has admitted it has a solution to its highly unreliable ageing fleet of coal power stations. This time, however, the plan is not the clichéd definition of insanity (which seems to have been the plan over much of the last decade).
The chairman of Eskom resigned from his post after the power utility resumed rolling blackouts earlier than expected in 2020.
In a statement on Friday morning, Eskom announced that it would stop stage-2 load shedding at 6am and would implement stage 1 until 11pm instead.
The World Bank is the first key institution to cut its economic growth forecast for South Africa to below 1% for 2020 due to electricity supply concerns.
Eskom lost additional generation capacity on Wednesday night and said it would therefore implement state-2 rotational blackouts throughout Thursday and into Friday.
The energy minister’s reluctance to fast-track renewable power projects could prolong the electricity shortages, which have caused the economy to stagnate and sapped investor confidence.
Eskom, South Africa’s biggest polluter, said it will slash emissions of three major pollutants by 2035 while it asks for exemptions to incoming standards to avoid as much as R37-billion in expenditure.