South African president declares disaster over electricity crisis

Feb. 10 (UPI) -- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a state of disaster as the country endures daily power outages of up to 10 hours.

"We are in the grip of a profound energy crisis, the seeds of which were planted many years ago. Our country has, for many months, endured a debilitating electricity shortage that has caused immense damage to our economy," Ramaphosa said Thursday.

"We know that without a reliable supply of electricity, businesses cannot grow, assembly lines cannot run, crops cannot be irrigated and basic services are interrupted."

Ramaphosa said Eskom, the struggling South African national electricity utility, is in debt by approximately $22.4 billion and the National Treasury "is finalizing a solution" that will enable Eskom to make necessary investments in maintenance and transmission.

"Government will support Eskom to secure additional funding to purchase diesel for the rest of the financial year," Ramaphosa said. "This should reduce the severity of load shedding as Eskom will be able to use its diesel-run plants when the system is under strain."

"Shedding" is a term used to describe the daily local power outages. Ramaphosa said it means "households and supermarkets are unable to keep food fresh, water supply is often disrupted, traffic lights do not work, streets are not lit at night."

Ramaphosa said a restructuring of Eskom is underway. The utility depends on coal for 80% of its power generation. Ramaphosa said maintenance was often neglected.

He said without a reliable power supply South Africa cannot grow an inclusive economy that creates jobs and efforts to cut poverty won't succeed.

The Eskom restructuring plan, Ramaphoa said, is to fix the coal-fired power stations and improve power supply, to enable and accelerate private investment in electricity generation, and to procure new energy capacity through renewables, gas and battery storage.

Businesses and households will also be encouraged to invest in rooftop solar. And an effort is being made to transform the energy sector to achieve long-term energy security, according to Ramaphosa.

Johannesburg economic analyst Khaya Sithole said the fatal flaw in Ramaphosa's approach to the electricity crisis is trying to do too many things simultaneously but failing to focus on the biggest challenge of maintenance.

"Maintenance does not amount to a new project, so if it's not a new project, you're not going to have a P.R. exercise where you're cutting a ribbon," Sithole said.