Let’s solve South Africa’s load shedding crisis

SOUTH Africa needs energy as a matter of urgency. At the time of writing, the country has lost 31 days to scheduled power cuts this year – a shameful new record. With Eskom announcing Stage 4 load shedding this past weekend, the impact of this is being felt by South Africans in their day-to-day lives, yet the cost of no electricity will continue to be felt for years.

Since 1964, the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc) has existed to promote black entrepreneurship and businesses, and the cumulative impact of load shedding in South Africa has been disastrous to our members, particularly those in the construction industry. Processes that at face value may seem straightforward, such as soldering and welding, are constantly interrupted by power cuts. These hold-ups inevitably have a knock-on effect, creating delays to project completion and the ability to create new jobs and launch new businesses.

Day-to-day amenities which are key to a business owner’s ability to function are also being hindered by frequent load shedding. Small business owners and entrepreneurs who aren’t located in urban areas and are out of reach of network range can’t exchange emails, or even phone calls, when power networks are down. How are the wheels of our local economy are suppose to keep turning if there’s no electricity to power them?

Load shedding has cost our economy R338 billion over the past decade and is responsible for the loss of 250 000 jobs a year. People without generators are obviously suffering disproportionately, but it affects all areas of society, from the gig economy – with Uber drivers struggling with connectivity issues and losing clients as a result, to small supermarkets having to throw away food due to spoilage because of lack of power needed for refrigeration.

This is a crisis and more needs to be done to ensure an adequate supply of electricity in South Africa.

The Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP), a strategic power procurement programme that was designed to address this crisis, has been dogged by delays since it was first announced in 2020. The delays required one of the bidders, Karpowership, to redeploy a vessel originally intended for South Africa. The bidder is to produce 1220 MW of electricity as part of the RMIPPPP. This is just one example of how our country is failing to take advantage of significant opportunities to improve our energy mix. Because of ongoing delays to the RMIPPPP, the vessel originally slated for South Africa, only stopped to refuel in Cape Town. It is now set to start producing energy in Brazil, a fellow BRICS nation. This is a lost opportunity and we must learn from it.

As we are increasingly finding out, the cost of no electricity is our most expensive option, but South Africa is also potentially compounding its exposure to economic harm by ignoring significant trends in international energy markets – namely the growing use of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG).

Indeed, there are benefits of using LNG over coal. It is cleaner and more efficient as a fuel than coal, which South Africa continues to be overly reliant upon.

It is clear Karpowership is prepared to play a significant role in helping solve South Africa’s energy crisis whilst investing in local jobs and skills. This is why Nafcoc is supporting the project, which will swiftly eliminate one entire stage of load shedding, bring clean LNG energy to millions of people within 12 months of financial close, and save the South African economy billions of rands.

The creation of an LNG industry represents a genuine opportunity for the country, and is something all South Africans should get behind. Load shedding has no place in a modern society. Enough is enough.