Real estate firms with solar plants on the roofs of their shopping malls and offices are increasingly frustrated by the inability to transport their power through the grid.
South Africa is considering declaring a national state of disaster as record power outages cripple the economy.
The government is investigating whether the ongoing energy crisis meets the legal requirements for the measure, last implemented in March 2020 to manage the covid-19 pandemic, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in closing remarks at the meeting of strategy of the ruling African National Congress on Monday. .
“Work is already underway within the government to establish whether the legal requirements of a national state of disaster are met and what specific actions we would be empowered to take,” he said.
The state of disasters in the past has made it possible to speed up spending and the implementation of certain regulations. In the case of the coronavirus outbreak, for example, it made it possible to enforce lockdown rules and purchase medical supplies.
The ANC has come under increasing pressure to resolve the country’s electricity crisis after more than two decades of indecision, corruption and political interference that reduced the state-owned utility Eskom to a dysfunctional entity dependent on handouts from the government. The country has suffered 94 consecutive days of rotating blackouts, known as load shedding, often for 10 hours or more a day.
The power outages are straining the finances of the country’s largest cities, as the impact on economic growth reduces tax revenues and maintenance budgets increase due to failures in electricity distribution equipment.
The central bank cut its forecast for economic growth this year to 0.3%, from 1.1% previously, due to power outages that it estimates will reduce output this year by 2 percentage points.
“A state of national disaster will allow us to have the necessary instruments to fully implement the challenges facing our nation,” Ramaphosa said.
