Written By: Faith Jemosop

Every year, South Africa faces the same electricity crisis. Every year, the same reasons are cited: aging infrastructure, under-investment in maintenance, and delayed new energy projects. And yet, nothing changes. The power cuts continue. The excuses remain unchanged. The grid remains vulnerable. And the people remain in the dark, both literally and figuratively. The question no longer is what’s wrong? We already know. The real question is: who is responsible?

South Africans are tired of hearing the same diagnosis for a crisis that never ends. Eskom, the state-owned electricity utility, blames load shedding on equipment failure due to old coal plants. The government talks of transitioning to renewables. Experts call for investment and reform. But year after year, the lights still go out.

More than half of Eskom’s coal-fired power stations are over 40 years old. These aging giants were not built to last this long without major overhauls, overhauls that have not been done. The result is a fragile system that breaks down under pressure, causing nationwide blackouts that disrupt lives and businesses.

The truth is clear: South Africa’s electricity crisis is no longer a surprise. It is predictable, expected, and entirely preventable. So why is no one fixing it?

A House Left to Decay

Imagine living in a house. The roof starts leaking. The pipes corrode. The walls crack. Instead of fixing it, you just patch things up with duct tape and hope for the best. Eventually, the house becomes unlivable. That is exactly what has happened to South Africa’s power infrastructure.

Eskom’s plants are that house, decaying, outdated, and neglected. The signs of collapse have been there for decades, yet those in charge have refused to invest in meaningful repairs or build replacements in time. This isn’t just about technical failure. This is about accountability.

So, Who Is Responsible?

When a problem repeats itself with no solution, you have to ask: who benefits from this brokenness? Who has the power to fix it but chooses not to?

Many fingers point to the government, and rightly so. Eskom is a state-owned entity. Its leadership is appointed by the state. Its funding comes from the state. Its decisions are heavily influenced by political interests. If the grid is failing, the buck stops with the government.

But it’s not just about politicians. There are private contractors, fuel suppliers, and politically connected individuals who profit from Eskom’s crisis. When power stations fail, the utility is forced to buy expensive emergency electricity or diesel for backup generators. These emergency contracts are often awarded to “tenderpreneurs”, well-connected businesspeople who thrive on public-sector dysfunction.

This raises an uncomfortable possibility: some people may be benefitting from the very crisis they’re supposed to solve.

Eskom’s Endless Loop of Excuses

Every year, the public is told to “bear with us” while Eskom fixes this or that power station. Every year, the same stations break down again. The pattern has become so routine that many South Africans have stopped listening.

Promises of reform are not new. They’ve been made for over a decade. Eskom has changed CEOs more times than it has launched major new power plants. Billions have been spent on rescue packages, yet there’s little to show for it.

Take Medupi and Kusile, the two mega coal projects meant to stabilize power supply. Both were delayed by years, plagued with design flaws and corruption scandals, and ended up costing double their original budgets. Even now, they don’t function at full capacity.

So we ask again: is this poor planning, or deliberate failure?

Also read: Why Millions of Kenyans Still Lack Electricity Despite Abundant Renewable Resources

Political Paralysis and Energy Capture

South Africa has massive renewable energy potential, abundant sunlight, strong winds, and even hydro imports from neighbouring countries. But the transition to clean energy has been painfully slow.

Why? Because Eskom has long resisted giving Independent Power Producers (IPPs) access to the grid. And until recently, the state tightly controlled who could generate electricity and how much. This centralized grip created a monopoly vulnerable to political capture.

Energy policy has also swung back and forth depending on who’s in power, with no long-term strategic vision. Even when rules change to allow more private energy production, like the 100 MW cap removal announced in 2021, the bureaucracy slows implementation.

It is a cycle of regulatory confusion, vested interests, and policy paralysis, while ordinary citizens suffer the consequences.

The electricity crisis isn’t just an inconvenience. It’s a national emergency with massive economic and social consequences.

• Productivity loss: Businesses, from factories to hair salons, lose income every hour the power is out.
  
• Job losses: As companies struggle to stay afloat, workers are let go. Unemployment rises.
• Investor fear: Foreign investors hesitate to fund projects in a country with unreliable power.
• Public frustration: Citizens lose trust in the government’s ability to deliver basic services.

The South African Reserve Bank estimates that load shedding reduces national GDP by up to 2% annually. That’s billions lost, year after year.

Can the Crisis Be Fixed?

Technically, yes. The solutions are known:

1. Urgently retire and replace aging coal plants with modern, clean energy sources.
2. Open the grid fully to independent producers, both big and small.
3. Invest in grid infrastructure to handle decentralized energy production.
4. Clean up Eskom’s management, removing political interference and corruption.
5. Create energy resilience at local level, letting municipalities generate and distribute their own power.
   

These solutions require one thing above all: political will.

Also read: Why Kenya Continues to Have East Africa’s Most Expensive Fuel

The power crisis is no longer just about Eskom or its coal stations. It is a crisis of leadership, accountability, and broken governance. Every year that passes without real action reinforces the belief that those in charge either don’t know how to fix it, or don’t want to.

The metaphor of the decaying house is fitting. You can only ignore a leaking roof for so long before the whole ceiling collapses. And in many ways, South Africa’s ceiling is beginning to fall.