Intense Power Outages Are Most Worrying Yet, South African Bank Says
- Rolling blackouts have persisted for almost two decades
- Outages likely shaved 1.3 percentage points off output in 2022
The darkened Braamfontein district as blackouts begin, in Johannesburg, on Jan 15.
Photographer: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images
This article is for subscribers only.
South Africa’s current bout of intense rolling blackouts threatens to further weigh on economic activity, weaken business confidence and weigh on investment, according to Absa Group Ltd.
While state-owned power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. has implemented outages in Africa’s most-industrialized economy for almost two decades, it has for the past seven days subjected the country to record blackouts — as much as 12 hours a day — to protect the power grid from collapse as its aging, mostly coal-fired power plants fail. Short-term solutions to alleviate the crisis have yet to be announced.