Frustration at policy response to South Africa’s growing power crisis

The slow pace of government action to address the power sector crisis makes it unlikely that drastic power cuts can be avoided over the South African winter, and Eskom is now warning that the country could face stage 8 load-shedding (meaning demand outstripping supply by 8GW) by mid-2021. The government’s bureaucratic approach, coupled with a failure to address the fundamental issues of Eskom’s debt and the country’s teetering sovereign debt rating, as well as clearly bewildered officials at the IPP Office and National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa), have led to gloomy sentiment among investors, despite a spree of announcements.