Energy Analyst Lungile Mashele says that South Africa could be looking at higher stages of rolling blackouts as things get back to normal following the festive season shut down of industries.
This week, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a resolution adopted by the governing African National Congress at its national conference last week that will see the energy department take over responsibility for overseeing Eskom.
The power utility has been facing power generating challenges since 2008, with 2022 being the worst year on record as far as rolling blackouts go.
Mashele said the outlook is not any better for this year.
“I don’t think anybody anticipated the 205 days, even if you look at Eskom’s estimates – they had told us that in winter already that worst case we are looking at about 100- days, and it was far more than that. We basically loadshed every other third day in 2022 and I certainly don’t think things are going to get better in 2023 either. We are already on Stage 4, people are only going back to work now, children are only going back to school and industry is starting to open up- by next week, we will be looking at back where we were just before that shutdown in December.”
Eskom has been at the epicentre of a national energy crisis, and the country saw a record 205 days of rolling blackouts last year. Energy Analyst, Lungile Mashele elaborates:
Meanwhile the energy analysts and researchers believe that the alleged attempt on outgoing Eskom CEO André de Ruyter’s life could make it more difficult for the power utility to find his replacement and further escalate the country’s energy crisis.
Police are investigating after Eskom confirmed that a poisoning incident occurred last month when De Ruyter drank coffee suspected to be laced with cyanide. De Ruyter resigned in early December, citing political pressure amid on-going rolling blackouts and allegations of sabotage at the power utility.
Research Fellow at the Global Risk Governance Programme at the University of Cape Town Hilton Trollip says political meddling and governance issues make it difficult for management to execute their duties.
“It doesn’t matter who they are, they don’t get the kind of support they need from government. They get mixed messages. This is why they have been so many CEO’S. There is a new CEO every year since 2014. De Ruyter has been there the longest.”