Political outrage as South Africa’s electricity crisis hits all-time low

By Mark Ogagan

South African political parties have expressed outrage over the sudden power outages and load shedding from Stage 3 to Stage 6.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) said that the rapid turn to Stage 6 load shedding highlights the fact that South Africa cannot rely on Eskom as its sole source of power.

“The over-reliance on Eskom to maintain and build new generation capacity has led to the creation of a monopoly of supply, and what is essentially a single point of failure.

“South Africa urgently needs to open its electricity supply sector, by accelerating the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme, and incentivizing the private sector to become more actively involved in addressing our electricity needs,” the party said.

It went on to say that the country cannot afford to wait for Eskom to address its mess.

For the Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF), Stage 6 load shedding points to deeper problems for the Government of National Unity (GNU).

“In just a few hours, we moved from Stage 3 to Stage 6—proof of the failed GNU that cannot provide basic services. South Africans are back in the dark because of incompetence and corruption,” posted the EFF on X.

“In just a few hours, we moved from Stage 3 to Stage 6—proof of the failed GNU that cannot provide basic services.

“South Africans are back in the dark because of incompetence and corruption!”

uMkhonto WeSizwe Party (MK Party) reposted a video of Adil Nchabeleng who raised alarm in Parliament last week over capacity questions due to the planned shutdown of three coal power stations, Hendrina, Camden, and Grootvlei.

“There is a planned shutdown of 4,500MW that is going to be effected in 2025. This is a major concern for us as MK, given the fact that South Africa has already been challenged by the issue of load shedding and load reduction.

“There is no discussion as to what the replacement of the shutdown power stations will be. What are they planning to do to replace the capacity that they are removing?” Asked Nchabeleng.