South Africa may have escaped load-shedding for months, but a new crisis is emerging, and Eskom can’t solve it alone.
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says load reduction, which affects 1.5 million customers, is now one of the biggest threats to energy stability. Unlike load-shedding, it stems from failing municipal infrastructure rather than supply-demand gaps.
“There is a direct relationship between failing municipalities and load reduction,” Ramokgopa told the SABC. “Municipalities are unable to collect revenue, deploy it into infrastructure, or even pay Eskom, which they now owe more than R100 billion.”
South Africans owe municipalities more than R400 billion for services. As a result, local governments cannot maintain substations or transformers, many of which are repeatedly failing under rising demand and illegal connections.
Ramokgopa warned: “When we say there is no load-shedding, 1.5 million people cannot relate to that. In the mornings and evenings, they are subjected to load reduction.”
“When we say there is no load-shedding, 1.5 million people cannot relate to that. In the mornings and evenings, they are subjected to load reduction.”
Eskom plans to intervene directly in struggling municipalities by providing technical support to refurbish infrastructure. But success depends on municipal cooperation and a resolution to the debt crisis, which requires the National Treasury’s involvement.
Critics argue that reforms have focused on generation while neglecting distribution, which municipalities manage for about 40% of households and small businesses. The growth of informal settlements has added unplanned demand, worsening outages.
Ramokgopa acknowledged progress at Eskom’s power stations but said new “fronts” are opening. “These men and women have done exceptional work in turning Eskom around. But it is not all rosy, and it is not all an Eskom problem,” he said.
The minister expects load reduction could be resolved within 18 months — but only if municipalities, Treasury, and communities cooperate. Without this, the crisis may prove harder to solve than load-shedding itself.
Read the full article at Daily Investor
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