Energy expert Ted Blom says that Eskom is in crisis, which is evident by the current daily load-shedding schedule being implemented as the state owned company struggles with coal shortages and rising maintenance costs.

While news of another major petrol price cut in January will give many a happy start to the new year, finance experts warn that the year ahead may not be as bright and cheerful.

Daagliks lees jy in die media van almal wat 'n eier te le het oor Suid Afrika en wat gedoen en nie gedoen moet word nie. Dis die een ondersoek na die ander en dit laat my dink aan my skooldae toe kinders so onder mekaar baklei het en die een die ander een "verklik" het.  Dit was bloot kinderpret maar hier praat ons van 'n land en 'n sogenaamde regering se doen en late in die donker en partykeer sommer in die lig ook. 

There’s a meme floating around on various social media platforms that an electric tractor would find it virtually impossible to do, say, 6,000 ha for seeding.

The scale of the economic devastation from South Africa’s severe lockdown regime is fast becoming apparent.

South Africa has the highest emission intensity in the G20 group of industrialised and developing countries. This threatens its commitment to help slow global warming. This disproportionate contribution is driven by the country’s coal-dependent national electricity utility, Eskom.

Eskom’s unexpected escalation of load-shedding this week has confirmed that South Africa’s post-COVID-19 economic recovery will be throttled by energy constraints, and that unless swift action is taken to support private electricity generation, crippling power cuts will continue for years.

So now we know. One of the reasons for retaining South African exchange controls is to ensure that enough money is available for investment in ‘a green economy and the move from coal to renewables and gas’.

Eskom, South Africa’s state-owned power utility, has a litany of financial and operational problems.

South Africa needs 16,000MW of new power generation capacity by 2030, but the government has not procured a single megawatt of additional power.

Eskom CEO André de Ruyter has laid out a funding plan to help the company move away from using coal.

South Africans are facing another round of power cuts despite promises from South Africa’s power utility, Eskom, that it would keep the lights on.

When President Cyril Ramaphosa visited Soweto last year to campaign in the local government elections, there were serious protests.

Must honest South Africans pay for Eskom’s sins and follies? I’m afraid we must. If we don’t, the economic consequences for the country are calamitous.

South Africa’s electricity infrastructure has been degrading in the past decade, with both scheduled and unscheduled power outages on the increase.

South Africa’s electricity sector has faced a series of challenges over the last two decades.

It started with inadequate grid infrastructure to provide electricity to the majority of the South African population in the 1990s. In 1994, only 36% of total households were electrified; 50% of the urban population and 12% of the rural population.

Eskom is in an increasingly desperate state. There is little hope that South Africa will have a secure and reliable electricity supply for years.

'N KRISIS veel groter as dié van die gewelddadige oproer in Julie verlede jaar,  selfs groter as die Covid-19-pandemie. Dít is hoe ernstig die elektrisiteitskrisis nou is, met potensieel rampspoedige implikasies vir Suid-Afrika se stabiliteit.

Eskom’s performance has now become the make-or-break factor for the South African economy.