South Africa's Eskom announces further power cuts

By AFP

South Africa Power cuts are a major source of frustration in South Africa, where protests broke out near Eskom's offices last year. By Phill Magakoe AFP

JUN 28, 2022 LISTEN

Power cuts are a major source of frustration in South Africa, where protests broke out near Eskom's offices last year. By Phill Magakoe (AFP)

South Africa, a country plagued by power shortages, on Tuesday imposed the the toughest electricity rationing in two and a half years after labour disputes disrupted production at several plants.

Power rationing to consumers was ramped up to so-called Stage 6 load-shedding to prevent countrywide blackouts.

Stage 6 means that South Africans will now experience multiple cuts per day, each lasting several hours.

Africa's leading industrialised country last experienced such drastic outages in December 2019.

"There is a high risk that the stage of load-shedding may have to change at any time, depending on the state of the plant," power utility Eskom said in a statement.

Power cuts are a major source of frustration and discontent in South Africa, where protests broke out near Eskom's offices last year.