Cape Town
South Africa is falling apart. Blackouts of up to ten hours a day are bringing businesses to a halt, making teaching harder and turning traffic lights dark. Food is rotting in warm fridges. There were more than 200 blackouts last year and they have continued every day so far in 2023.
ANC strategists question whether any party can survive the public anger over the mismanagement of the grid
A country that once saw itself as Africa’s industrial powerhouse is now regularly without power. The cause is a debt-ridden and run-down fleet of power stations, which have been starved of repairs and regularly break down. Electricity supplies have to be switched off to stop the grid collapsing. What began in 2007 as an emergency measure has become routine, while the building of two new plants has been bungled.
The power cuts are affecting every sector. Erratic supply is hitting the country’s mining giants, its major exporters.
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