South Africa’s Tumultuous History With Load-Shedding

When South Africans experienced two days of load-shedding in January,after 10 months of uninterrupted power supply, citizens scrambled to reinstall their load-shedding schedule apps. For many, the term "load-shedding" has become synonymous with daily life, but the roots of this crisis stretch back to the apartheid era and beyond.

South Africa's power infrastructure tells a story of historical inequality. Eskom, the state utility thatsupplies 95 percent of the country's electricity, serves a population of 61 million people, with 63 percent livingbelow the poverty line. This statistic isn't merely a contemporary economic challenge — it's a direct legacy of the apartheid regime, which, until 1994, enforced racial segregation and created profound inequalities in education, wealth, land ownership, and access to infrastructure.

During apartheid, power infrastructure development focused primarily onserving white communities and industries, leaving many areas, particularly those designated for non-white populations, with inadequate or no electrical infrastructure. This historical imbalance continues to shape how load-shedding impacts different communities today.

David Masureik, CEO of New Southern Energy, a South African independent power producer (IPP), explains that load-shedding is Eskom's way of managing electricity shortages. "When they see that the demand in the country will outstrip the available supply through the generation facilities, they deliberately cut power to certain areas. This reduces the overall demand to a level their generation capacity can handle," he tells OkayAfrica.

Load-shedding began in 2007, and the peak of the energy crisis was in late 2023 when power cuts lasted more than 12 hours daily. However, the foundation of this crisis was laid years earlier. "It was in the late 1990s that it was tabled, given the growth trajectory of the country, given the population increase, given the electrification rollout program, there was going to be an increase in demand in the country. Our Eskom fleet at that stage was already old," Masureik says.

The post-apartheid government faced the monumental task of expanding electricity access to previously underserved communities while maintaining aging infrastructure. Years of mismanagement and corruption, particularly during former President Jacob Zuma's administration, further complicated this challenge, culminating in a$14 billion debt relief payout to Eskom in February 2023.

The effect of load-shedding mirrors an existing social divide. "Many people that live in more affluent areas can deal with a couple of hours of load-shedding, [as] they might be able to buy a battery backup system," says Masureik. However, power cuts mean more than inconveniences for most South Africans — they represent genuine safety and survival challenges.

When the power goes out, the consequences cascade: cell phone networks fail, affecting emergency service access in a country with high crime rates. Basic activities like cooking become impossible for families without alternative power sources. Businesses, particularly in underserved areas, struggle to maintain operations.

"On the other side, it means that people can't make meals, feed their kids, and do the necessary things. "If you have a manufacturing process, it's severe because your whole plant shuts down. [To run a business], you need lights and computers. Because of the disruption load-shedding creates, your lost productivity hours are significant because people lose their rhythm," Masureik tells OkayAfrica.

While other African nations face similar energy challenges—Nigeria has 90 million peoplewithout power access, and the Democratic Republic of Congo projectsonly 20 percent of its population will have modern energy by 2030 — South Africa's situation is distinct. The country has relatively advanced infrastructure, but its distribution and maintenance reflect historical inequalities that other African nations, with different colonial and post-colonial trajectories, don't share in quite the same way.

Recent developments offer cautious hope. In the last two years, the Electricity Regulation Amendment Act hasliberalized energy markets, allowing private renewable energy generators to operate. "[The government] reduced the limitation on how big a renewable energy system you could implement. So, there have been policy shifts to bring more generation capacity online. We have seen that this has facilitated a large uptake in the commercial space," Masureik explains.

However, actual progress requires addressing both infrastructure and inequality. As Masureik notes, South Africa "needs the grids to be upgraded to transport power effectively and efficiently around the country." If this upgrade is successfully implemented, it should gradually and efficiently help alleviate the country's current load-shedding crisis.