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South Africa is in its 14th year of planned blackouts, while Ramaphosa promised that these would end in 2019.
South Africa relies on open-cycle gas turbines that run on diesel to produce electricity, and capacity is running low because of global supply shortages caused by the war in Ukraine.
It was costly, too. Senior researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Dr Ridhwaan Suliman, tweeted that these turbines cost R700,000 per unit per hour to operate. They are running almost all the time to keep electricity supply going even at limited provision. In six years South Africa has not built a new generation capacity, said Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter at a briefing to the country.
Johannesburg had an additional 2,000 power cuts last week, according to authorities. The city grid is at its life-end, and Eskom’s power cuts hasten its demise because the system overloads when it is constantly switched on and off.
Cape Town is one load-shedding level below the rest of the country because the city buys power from independent power producers to lessen the burden on its residents.