South African energy crisis

South Africa's energy crisis (or load shedding) is an ongoing period of widespread national blackouts of electricity supply. It began in the later months of 2007 towards the end of Thabo Mbeki's second term as president, and continues to the present.^[1][2] The South African government-owned national power utility, and primary power generator, Eskom, and various parliamentarians attributed these rolling blackouts to insufficient generation capacity.^[3]

According to Eskom and government officials, the solution requires the construction of additional power stations and generators.^[4] This does not explain the fact that according to Eskom's own figures its available generation capacity has dropped from more than 37GW in 1994^[5] to less than 28GW in 2024^[6] in spite of two major power stations (Kusile and Medupi) having been added to the grid during that period, nor why Eskom's financial position has deteriorated from showing a R2.3bn net profit in 1994^[5] to having a debt of R423bn in 2023.^[7] Corruption and mismanagement of Eskom, most notably during the Jacob Zuma administration, have exacerbated this energy crisis;^[8][9][10] neglect by Eskom staff^[11] in addition to multiple acts of sabotage^[12] and the activity of criminal syndicates within Eskom with alleged political connections^[13][14] have also contributed to ongoing power supply problems, as has corruption within the ruling party itself.^[15][16][17] Many South Africans consider the ongoing energy crisis to be just another symptom of long-standing inept governance.^{[18][19][20][21]} In April 2024, South Africa had a full month without rotational power cuts, which was the first time since January 2022.^[22]