Why is South Africa collapsing?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 3 August 2023
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
South Africa once had the most abundant and cheap electricity on the continent. Now, it is experiencing power blackouts. It’s called loadshedding, the process by which the power company Eskom occasionally reduces the demand for electricity on the national grid.
For many South Africans this means no electricity for up to ten hours a day, almost every day. The result is disruption to everyday life, impacting on work, education, sanitation, food and heating.
In 1994 Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress party promised a better life for all South Africans. So why is South Africa’s infrastructure crumbling?
Contributors: Duma Qgubule, economist and journalist Thomas Mnguni, campaigner with Groundwork Anton Eberhard, professor at the Power Futures Lab at the University of Cape Town Lungile Mashele, energy economist
Presented by Audrey Brown Produced by Louise Clarke Researched by Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty Edited by Tara McDermott and Tom Bigwood Technical producer Kelly Young Production co-ordinator Brenda Brown
(Dressmaker Faieza Caswell sews under candlelight at her workplace in Cape Flats, South Africa. Credit: Esa Alexander/Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | excitement here in New Zealand has been ignited for this tournament. |
| 0:04.3 | Hearing our fans being behind us is just unforgettable. |
| 0:08.1 | World football at the Women's World Cup from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:12.8 | We're going all the way, baby. |
| 0:14.0 | Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:18.2 | Welcome to the inquiry with me Audrey Browne. |
| 0:21.4 | Each week, one question, four expert witnesses and an answer. |
| 0:26.4 | A new word entered the South African lexicon in late 2007. |
| 0:33.3 | That word is low-shading. |
| 0:36.9 | It described the process by which the power company SCOM |
| 0:40.9 | occasionally reduced the demand for electricity on the national grid. |
| 0:45.8 | Power would be shut off on rotation and after a short while, |
| 0:49.5 | it would come back on again. |
| 0:51.6 | It didn't happen very often, so it was a minor irritation. |
| 0:56.6 | That was then. |
| 0:58.6 | Today, and the past few months, SCOM has been rationing power in stages with stage six being |
| 1:05.1 | the highest. Thus leaves South Africans without power for up to at least 10 hours a day. |
| 1:11.9 | Spoiled food in refrigerators, appliances destroyed as unpredictable power surges back |
| 1:18.4 | through the grid. Small businesses closing down, adding to the huge number of unemployed people. |
| 1:25.2 | Hospital patients dying because life giving medical equipment |
| 1:29.5 | can't operate without electricity. |
| 1:32.4 | Traffic lights not functioning, so there's chaos on the streets. |
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