South Africa: Many dark days to come

In the wake of this week’s blackout in areas east of Johannesburg, energy and construction experts have warned of darker days to come. As thousands of homes and businesses from Bedfordview to Germiston were plunged into darkness during this week’s cold snap, the Ekurhuleni metro pointed fingers at Eskom.

Meanwhile, the eThekwini municipality in Durban took responsibility for the power failures in several suburbs, saying staff shortages were to blame for the outages.


Des Muller, the lead developer for power infrastructure at construction company Group Five, has focused his attention on all municipalities around the country, arguing they were lagging behind in terms of technical asset management.

Blackouts have been on the cards for a number of years, argues Muller, and consumers should expect more of the same in the years ahead, while the economy can also expect to suffer as a result. According to some estimates, large-scale outages are believed to cost the economy between R2-billion and R8-billion a year.

The Star