South Africa power cuts hurt emerging economy

(5 Dec 2018) South Africa's troubled power utility has implemented a series of power cuts nationwide, intensifying concern about attempts to spur growth in one of Africa's biggest economies.
State-owned Eskom on Tuesday announced another day of scheduled electricity cuts in what it said was "a measure of last resort to protect the power system from a total collapse or blackout."
Eskom attributed the rotational cuts, known as "load shedding," to breakdowns at power generation plants and said teams are working to restore service.
South African economist Mike Schussler said the problem was that the new power stations acted "very much like the old power stations."
He said they require a lot of maintenance and that "it seems to be a serious design fault."
The debt-laden utility, which provides most of South Africa's electricity, is at the centre of efforts by President Cyril Ramaphosa to rid state-owned enterprises of corruption and mismanagement after the scandal-tainted tenure of predecessor Jacob Zuma.
South Africans also experienced major blackouts in 2008 and 2014.

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