How world sees SA: Eskom may force Ramaphosa’s hand

South Africa's electricity crisis is ultimately a spectacular failure of planning. Experts identified the problem well in advance, but the state failed to act in time to replace and maintain older power plants. South Africans did not take kindly to the renewed schedule of loadshedding imposed on them soon after the beginning of a new year and decade. They took to Twitter to voice their disapproval and in true SA fashion the jokes were rolling in about the loadshedding guy being back from his Christmas leave and that power cuts were like the debit order you forgot about. They were also severe in their criticism of President Cyril Ramaphosa who promised that there would be no loadshedding from 17th December to the 13th of January. André de Ruyter; Eskom's new broom has been installed and an Eskom spokesperson said he met some of the Eskom staff over the public holidays and had been getting to know the business. De Ruyter has the unenviable task of turning around South Africa's biggest problem and he has to contend with the unions who promised to make his life a misery if he goes ahead and split the power utility into the intended three units for generation, transmission and distribution. Palesa Morudu of Clarity Global Strategic Communications has analysed the situation at Eskom in the Washington Post and says that the dire situation at Eskom may force Ramaphosa's hand who "stands accused of lacking the courage of his convictions." – Linda van Tilburg

By Thulasizwe Sithole

The recent power cuts are not a first for South Africa; it is something that citizens have become accustomed to. But this time it was elevated to a new level when 'an unprecedented 6,000MW was removed from the national grid'. It resulted in the shutdown of mines and factories while households went dark with no access to stoves, refrigerators or computers. It also led to a severe disrupted in cell phone communication. As a result, President Cyril Ramaphosa ended a state visit to Egypt prematurely to deal with the crisis.

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