Investors are currently following a wait-and-see approach when it comes to making energy-intensive investments in South Africa while the country’s electricity crisis continues.
On the eve of the country’s fifth investment conference on 13 April 2023, South African companies are spending billions of rand to keep their enterprises operational with alternative sources of energy.
All while the state-controlled Eskom is plodding along from one crisis to the next with numerous power outages caused by problems at its coal-fired power stations.
Over the last 15 months, Eskom has failed to provide uninterrupted power supply, with a record of 141 consecutive days of load shedding between 31 October 2021 to 20 March 2023, which costs the country a shocking R204 million per day.
This is in addition to the amount of $100 000 billion that President Cyril Ramaphosa set as a target for investments in 2018.
It was supposed to have been collected over five years to support sustainable growth and job creation in Africa’s most developed and industrial economies.
Meanwhile, the ANC has damaged the country’s relationship with America – with its stance on Russia and Taiwan – to such an extent that President Cyril Ramaphosa must send a delegate to America to try and salvage healthy relations.
South Africa’s stance on the matter can surely jeopardise trade agreements with America and other Western countries, so government must strike a balance to protect its interests in both the East and the West.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Jaco Mulder on FF Plus
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