Markets and ‘developmental state’ pay for South Africa’s power crisis

South Africa and the wider Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) region were plunged into chronic power cuts this winter because ultimately the numbers didn’t add up: with reserve margins (the gap between useable installed capacity and demand) withering to dangerously low levels, rains in January further reduced the percentage of the 36,000MW generation capacity that Eskom could put into its grid. South Africa just didn’t have enough electricity – a grim reality that Eskom has been blaming the SA government for (because a decade ago it sought to break up its monopoly, unsuccessfully), and for which President Thabo Mbeki’s administration has made an unprecedented apology.