Thursday, May 30, 2024

South Africa's electricity comes from 17 coal fired plants...so much for environmentalism

South Africa electricity crisis: No power for up to six hours


By Vumani Mkhize,BBC News JohannesburgSouth Africa is gripped by a winter of discontent as the country faces its biggest ever power crisis. 



People are experiencing rolling blackouts of up to six hours a day and are having to face a bitterly cold winter with an erratic and unreliable power supply. 

A typical day of what the state-run power company Eskom euphemistically calls "Stage six load shedding" consists of waking up to no power, driving to work through congested roads because the traffic lights aren't working, being pummelled by the din of generators at the work place, and then finding power has been cut once more when you get back home. 

It's enough to make George Landon, a resident of South Africa's main city Johannesburg, want to leave the country.

"I had a job interview in London. I'm booking my flight tomorrow because of the state we are in. Unfortunately I love my country, but the country needs to love us as well," he says.


Getty Images Women from the coal-dust covered and power-line pollution-exposed Masakhane settlement fill their wheel barrows for a load of free coal provided by a nearby mine on February 5, 2015 in Emalahleni

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