South Africa has said the power crisis is far from over saying there could be about two years more of intense load-shedding.
The country’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) said Eskom, the local power utility, is failing to meet demand.
South Africans have had over 1.900 hours of blackouts this year alone, eNCA News reported citing Monique le Roux, a Senior Researcher at the CSIR.
The CSIR says there has been an increase in unplanned outages. Monique le Roux said:
Unless Eskom starts putting new capacity on the grid, load shedding is here to remain and the predictions now are that it is probably going to be another 2-3 years of intense load shedding and then hopefully as the IPP procurement programmes come online and get connected then there will be some easing of the load shedding.
This comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa had said it is difficult for the government to promise immediate alternatives to address power cuts at schools.
Ramaphosa answered questions in Parliament on Thursday, 4 November 2022.
He admitted that blackouts continue to be a challenge to the country.
Ramaphosa said some steps have been taken to reduce interruptions at healthcare facilities.