South Africa Faces Social Unrest Risk on Lingering Power Crisis

South Africa faces a winter of social unrest as sustained power outages limit economic growth and job creation, amid a cost-of-living crisis and increasing political tensions ahead of elections scheduled for next year, according to the Centre For Risk Analysis.

Africa’s most-industrialized economy is likely to be plagued by 43 weeks of severe blackouts, in which state-owned company Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. will impose daily outages of as much as 5,000 megawatts as it seeks to protect the national power grid from collapse, Chris Hattingh, the think tank’s head of policy analysis, said in a note. The projection is based on the power utility’s latest energy outlook, which suggests it won’t be able to meet demand during any week through March next year, he said.