Relationships are, usually, about give and take. Not ours with Eskom though. All they do is take! They take your power, they take your money and they even take your joy! Talk about toxic. 😒 We’ve lived with loadshedding for 14 years, but these last few weeks have seen it reach record-breaking numbers.

According to Bloomberg, the current energy shed is the highest ever recorded in a single year… and we’re only in July! 

Constrained power systems and plant breakdowns are often blamed for Eskom’s woes. But this time there was yet another factor at play: an unprotected strike by Eskom workers. Last week Eskom said various power stations were affected when striking staff failed to report for duty. At other plants, non-striking staff were prevented from working. 

As the strike continued, the power utility said the unlawful industrial action had forced it to implement Stage 6 loadshedding for just the second time ever. (The last time was for a short time in December 2019). This meant most of the country has been subjected to at least six hours of loadshedding a day. 

Eskom and its employees reached a wage agreement this week that will see Eskom fork out  R1 billion between 01 July 2022 and 30 June 2023 – a wage bill that neither South Africa nor Eskom can afford. Don’t pack away the candles just yet … Eskom says it will still “take a few weeks for the power generation system to fully recover to pre-strike levels”. (So what’s that? Hovering around a slightly uncomfortable Stage 2, on average?) 

As we’ve said before, there is a solution in the long-term: SA’s $8.5bn deal with wealthy countries to transition to renewable energy could move us away from the ”wet coal” and “broken plant” excuses. Plus Eskom is set to be broken up.

But we need to look at our journey into this abyss. As News24’s Kyle Cowan explains – it’s been two decades of mismanagement and bad decision-making by the ANC government. “We have not spent enough money investing in our electricity infrastructure. We have not properly maintained the infrastructure that we do have. We have not listened to or taken heed of warnings from experts who have for years said the country is staring down the barrel of a loaded gun.”

As we press into a renewable energy future, it’s crucial that this time, the important decisions are made by people who know what they’re doing (experts), not our inept government officials. South Africa can’t afford to be put in this position ever again. We can’t play on broken strings anymore, Eskom.