Economists Warn of Job Losses Associated With Eskom Load-Shedding

LOCAL NEWS

• Over half of Eskom's installed capacity was offline on Monday, necessitating the move to stage 4 load shedding for the rest of the week.
  • Ramaphosa, and cabinet ministers in charge of Eskom have thus far failed to turn up with any plan of action or solution to the problem.
  • Public Enterprises minister Gordhan says government needs to move with a sense of urgency, but no plan has been forthcoming.
  • Energy experts, meanwhile, say that the government's dithering and corruption involved in the new station builds like Kusile are to blame for the ongoing crisis
• Energy experts also warn that the Kusile station may have been handed over too early as reflected by the fall in energy availability factor to just 24.5%.
  • Economists also warn that extended load-shedding will cost SA more jobs the longer it goes on for, with SA set to lose 350,000 jobs this year. Notes a stalling in job creation correlated to load-shedding.
  • Meanwhile energy expert Mike Rossouw says load-shedding is set to increase with Eskom "in worse shape than ever." Local business councils are calling for executives to step down at Eskom over the issue
• ANC says it may consider election reruns in some municipalities where EFF member are pushing the party into impossible demands for entering coalitions