JOHANNESBURG - South Africans are struggling in the dark to cope with growing power outages hitting homes and businesses across the country.
Rolling blackouts have been experienced for years, but this week the country's state-owned power company Eskom extended the outages, leaving some residents and businesses without power for more than nine hours a day.
The strike by Eskom workers is exacerbating the utility's woes, which include failing aging coal-fired power plants, insufficient power generation capacity and corruption, according to experts.
Extended power outages are hitting South Africans during the southern hemisphere winter, when many households rely on electricity for heating, lighting and cooking.
Businesses large and small have had to close for long periods of time or spend large amounts of diesel fuel to operate generators. Anger and frustration at the outage was widespread among business owners and customers, with Eskom describing it as unloading.
Blackouts are here to stay, say experts, who warn it will take years to significantly increase South Africa's power generation capacity. South Africa mines coal and relies heavily on coal-fired plants, which causes significant air pollution. The country wants to increase power generation from solar and other renewable energy sources.
Energy expert Hilton Trollip said: "The big picture is that we at least expect to have (significant power outages) this winter. "Eskom told us late last year that there was a chronic power shortage... which means that we have a lot of extra power on the grid. Before generating electricity, we will continue to be exposed to the risk of shedding at any stage. The question then is, how serious will the unloading be?
Trollip said: "The most direct economic consequence is that businesses have to stop production because they don't have electricity...whether you are a factory, a travel agency or a store." "Whenever economic activity is disrupted because there is no power, it is a direct cost to the economy.
Economists say power outages cost South Africa well over $40 million a day and discourage investment. South Africa's economy is the largest in Africa. The developed economy is already in recession, with unemployment at 35%.
Trollip said small businesses in the country's towns, suburbs and rural areas were among the hardest hit by rolling blackouts.
Soweto, Johannesburg's largest town. Kindergarten teacher Buhle Ndlovu said the power outage had increased her costs of running the school.
“We cater to about 40 children here. We need to provide them with healthy meals every day," Ndlovu said. "With the rates we charge, we cannot afford the extra cost of buying petrol for cooking. Loadshedding is really giving us a hard time.
She said it was a challenge to look after children by candlelight before parents picked them up after dark.
However, some shops are getting new business from the outage, such as Uri's Power Center, which is selling generators quickly , batteries and other backup systems.
“I think people should definitely reduce their reliance on Eskom. I don't think the power situation will resolve itself anytime soon," boss Adam Zimmerman said at his Randburg area store. "We all know the problems at Eskom and people have options, whether that's investing in generators to run their business or family.
Eskom chief executive Andre de Ruyter told a press conference on Friday that the crisis was receiving serious attention and he personally briefed President Cyril Ramaphosa on what the company was doing to combat the crisis. Keep the lights on.
