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South Africa Nears an Ignoble Record: 100 Days of Blackouts

  • Country enduring worst bout of power cuts as Eskom founders
  • Central bank reduces 2023 economic growth forecast to 0.3%

South Africa is nearing 100 consecutive days of rolling blackouts, the longest stretch yet, with more to come as its electricity crisis deepens. 

Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., the state-owned company that produces almost all the electricity in Africa’s most industrialized economy, has imposed blackouts daily since Oct. 31, making Monday the 99th straight day of outages, according to Bloomberg calculations. Power rationing, known locally as loadshedding, is needed to protect the nation’s grid from collapse when Eskom’s aging and poorly maintained and mostly coal-fed plants can’t meet demand, which happened on 200 days over 2022.