South Africa's Power Outage Continues for 2 Weeks, "Up to 320 Billion Won Lost Daily"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] South Africa is entering the second week of its worst-ever power outage crisis.

South African power company Eskom entered Stage 6 load shedding (rotating power outages) until the 4th, continuing from last week, and as of the 5th, it is still implementing rotating outages ranging from Stage 2 to Stage 5 depending on the time of day. These rotating outages are expected to continue until the 8th.

This is the first time since December 2019 that Stage 6 load shedding, which causes partial blackouts lasting from 6 to up to 10 hours a day, has occurred.

Eskom explained that the power outage crisis worsened due to the union's 'illegal' strike that has lasted for several weeks. The union plans to convey the members' resolution regarding the newly proposed 7% wage increase to management on the 5th.

However, Eskom's problems were revealed to have been serious even before the union strike. The weekly newspaper Sunday Times reported on the 3rd, citing internal documents, that about half of Eskom's 14 coal-fired power plants experience breakdowns again within nine months after maintenance.

The newspaper pointed out that the worst-performing power plants are offline for nearly 70% of their scheduled operating time, stating, "Stage 6 load shedding and other power outages have become routine, potentially causing a daily economic loss of 4 billion rand (approximately 319.3 billion KRW)."

As the power outage crisis prolongs, support for the ruling party is also declining, sparking debates over whether the responsible minister and Eskom's CEO should be dismissed.