There’s a Huge Energy Crisis in South Africa That the World Isn’t Talking About

A constant stream of near-daily blackouts, known as load shedding, means millions of people across South Africa are being left without electricity to do even basic tasks like cooking, working, or watching TV.

President Cyril Ramaphosa recently declared the worsening situation a “state of disaster” and in the last few weeks has created two new ministry departments in what’s been seen as a display of attempting to sort things out. 

Protests are expected across the country this week after populist opposition leader Julius Malema called for Ramaphosa to step down and urged people to take part in a national shutdown to voice their anger over the crisis. Over 80 people have already been arrested in connection to the protests.

Load shedding or rolling blackouts have been an issue in South Africa for the last 15 years. The government has divided regional areas into a grid and pre-warns residents of what times during the day the power will be going out. But the problem has only been getting worse in recent years. 

Questions of corruption within the government have been lingering since an inquiry into former president Jacob Zuma’s time in power revealed how state resources were hugely mismanaged by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party. 

On top of the politics, there are growing frustrations over the knock-on effects load shedding has on the economy and other services.

Jaimen Brown, 23, is a newly-qualified paramedic working in the city of Cape Town. He said load shedding has added an extra layer of risk to his job, leaving him worrying for his own safety whenever he is on shift.

“Here in Cape Town, we are operating in some of the most dangerous areas in the country, and possibly in the world,” he told VICE World News over WhatsApp.

He said even areas that were previously deemed to be “safe” can become “unsafe” locations when load shedding is in play.

“We have to walk into the townships or informal settlements, unaware of our surroundings due to the decreased lighting,” he added. 

South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world, as well as high levels of unemployment and inequality.

Several incidents occur each year against paramedics on duty. So far this year, around 10 violent attacks have been recorded against emergency workers in the Western Cape - these incidents can include vehicle hijackings, robberies, and assault.

Brown’s shifts are 12 hours long and during that time he can be responding to road accidents, shootings, and critically ill patients.

He says the levels of stress faced by emergency workers can affect their physical and mental health, and the additional issues that come with regular power cuts end up putting patient care at risk.

“To increase risk, to increase the danger, means that rates of anxiety and stress amongst the crews goes up dramatically. Patient care sometimes has to take a back seat,” he said.

“What we're seeing is a huge amount of practitioners leaving the country and obviously that has a massively detrimental effect on services throughout South Africa.”

Power in the country is mainly supplied by the state-owned, debt-ridden company Eskom, which stated it could only supply half of the power needed in the country for the 2022/23 financial year. 

It relies on coal-fired power stations that are very old and unreliable. With power outages ongoing for multiple hours at a time, cities are left looking to private energy companies to fill the shortfall and businesses must sort out their own solutions. 

Ziyaad Kolia is the owner of Super Burger SA, a restaurant located in Durban. For him, the problems he faces goes beyond the regular load shedding. 

He’s experienced electrical surges which have damaged restaurant equipment, he’s had to lay off casual staff, and is constantly needing to purchase ice to keep produce cool in freezers.

He estimates his business losses each month are over 20 percent due to the knock-on effect load shedding has in running his restaurant.

“It’s always been emotional dealing with business but now you’re in a space like this where you can’t even trade, you can’t even serve a customer, you literally can’t do much. 

“Other businesses around us are closed. There’s days where you doubt if you should be actively running a business in this country.”

During load shedding, his entire restaurant comes to a halt. Machines for cooking can’t run, delivery systems are down, the till and other equipment are shut off, leaving staff unable to do any work during that time.

Kolia’s burger store opened at its location after the previous tenants – an ice cream store – had to shut down as a result of the issues they faced with load shedding.

Other businesses nearby have opted to use generators during the power cuts to be able to stay open but he says it’s only a “temporary fix”.

“It’s not a sustainable way of electricity because it takes up diesel, and diesel is really expensive.”

South Africa’s economy is shrinking more than expected as a result of businesses being unable to run properly, having to close down, or forcing staff to be laid off.

“I’m a South African and I have a lot of resilience so I keep pushing on but I don’t know how long that’s going to last,” he told VICE World News.

Many people are pointing fingers at the government, alleging corruption and a history of failing to deliver on fixing the issues.

Ramaphosa and his ministers from the ruling ANC party have been accused by opposition officials of “living like rock stars” while the nation is living through blackouts.

Government ministers don’t have to pay for their own electricity or water at their official residences and those residences are also exempt from load shedding.

Student and climate activist Raeesah Noor Mahomed believes the country has the potential to transition to renewable energy sources but says “there’s a lot of corruption” in the government preventing this from happening.

“Because of the immense amount of profit that comes from coal mining and fossil fuels, there's a refusal [to transition] and that's worldwide because of how much profit there is in fossil fuels.”

Mahomed is 20 years old and in their third year at the University of Cape Town. Their life revolves around studying which can become impossible to do when there’s no electricity. They believe things will only get worse “because there’s no sign it’s getting better”.

“With load shedding you can't access wifi. If there's no internet, you can't do research for your assignments unless everything is downloaded on your computer. And then what happens if your battery dies?

“A lot of times last year we had to, as a class, ask for extensions and one of my lecturers said no. He said load shedding is something we all have to deal with. You should plan for it.”

But Mahomed feels it’s too difficult to plan for as different zones will have load shedding at different times and sometimes electricity is out due to power failures and not scheduled blackouts. 

They also say it comes at an “insane” cost for students, especially those who can’t afford alternative options.

“Data is so expensive, even if you buy data and hotspot your laptop, people can't afford to keep doing that. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds can’t cope.

“If you can’t work at home or on campus, you have to go work at other places. If you work at a coffee shop you have to buy coffee and every day it adds up and people can't afford that.”

They want the rest of the world to truly understand the struggles and frustrations people in South Africa are facing, and have been facing for years.

“Not a lot of affluent areas in the world, or the west, knows what it's like to not have electricity for such extended periods of time,” they said.

“The knock on effects of load shedding is people losing jobs, food going off, hospitals not being able to run. And of course, it's mainly marginalised people who are most affected by this.”