Load shedding & water woes: Can South Africa fix its ailing infrastructure?

Aljazeera :
“I set up my company several years ago. The power cuts were bad then, lasting up to five hours a day,” said Lezanne Viviers, who works in the fashion industry and lives in Johannesburg, South Africa’s biggest city.

Since 2007, electricity cuts have become so common that Eskom – the state-owned electricity supplier – has devised a schedule for them. It calls these periods of national exasperation “load shedding”.

“We weren’t ready for it. But us South Africans are very resilient,” Viviers told Al Jazeera. “When there was load shedding, we worked with our hands and made use of the sunshine. I also bought a back-up engine. That was useful, as some power outages last year persisted all-day.”

More recently the country has experienced uninterpreted power for 57 days – the longest consecutive period in over two years – drawing allegations of electioneering ahead of next week’s general ballot.

Still, many companies have bought back-up diesel generators or solar panels, often at the expense of other investments and hiring. For small or informal businesses that cannot afford secondary supplies, working around the blackouts – or not working at all – is unavoidable.

In 2023, power outages mothballed factories, offices and shops to the tune of 926 million South African rand ($51m) a day, according to the country’s Reserve Bank.

“I installed a solar panel a few years ago to avoid dealing with electricity failures altogether,” Viviers added. “I know the next government faces numerous challenges. But making sure the lights work for most people seems like a good place to start.”

Power woes are not the only challenge confronting the country of 62 million. Decades of low-maintenance and a lack of investment have led to crumbling transport networks and water supplies.

The ruling African National Congress (ANC), which has been in power since the end of apartheid in 1994, is in danger of losing its parliamentary majority on the back of decrepit infrastructure – a key voting issue.

In a BrandMapp-Silverstone online survey (PDF) conducted last year, two-thirds of middle-income respondents said they would consider rejecting the governing party due to years of power failures.

For decades, Eskom’s ageing coal-powered plants have been poorly maintained and undermined by theft, especially of coal and copper. Elsewhere, accusations of corruption abound.