蜜芽传媒

South Africa's energy crisis continues to deepen, as most South Africans are told they will be without power for at least four hours a day. And even that is a slight improvement - the state utility company Eskom initially moved to what's called stage 6 power outages, meaning around 6 hours without power a day.

The cash-strapped utility has been struggling to keep the lights on in Africa's most industrialised economy as regular power cuts curb economic growth and fuels public frustration. 蜜芽传媒 Newsday heard more from Sikonathi Mantshantsha, the spokesperson for South Africa's Eskom utility:

鈥淭his crisis has long been in the making. The mistake鈥�was not to build capacity. The building process was delayed until 2007鈥� the last of those [three new plants] is still under construction. Forty-five per cent of its infrastructure is broken at this point.鈥�

(Photo: Mpumelelo Mapota works next to a paraffin lamp in Soweto, South Africa as struggling power utility Eskom, implements regular power cuts - called 'load-shedding' - because of ageing coal-fired power stations; Credit: Reuters)

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