Why the lights keep going out in South Africa

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Why the lights keep going out in South Africa?

South African homes, offices and businesses have endured a week of daily power cuts, designed to prevent a total collapse of the overstretched electricity grid.

The use of scheduled blackouts, or load shedding, is not new in the country - but the latest round has been the most disruptive yet, sparking a public outcry. As the state-owned power utility, Eskom, battles to meet demand, it has warned that it could run out of money by April, defaulting on its vast debt.

Eskom is one of the biggest power utilities in the world, while South Africa is the most-industrialised country in Africa.

The crisis at the utility poses a huge threat to the economy and to the political survival of President Cyril Ramaphosa, who faces an election in May.

What are the roots of the crisis?

The latest round of rotating blackouts has been attributed to maintenance issues at Eskom power stations. However, this is not the first time the utility has resorted to load shedding. Similar measures were introduced late last year, as well as in 2008 and 2015.

In fact, the current crisis is the result of a perfect storm in which rising costs, falling revenues, crumbling infrastructure, and decades of corruption and mismanagement each play a part.

Eskom generates almost all its electricity from coal, an abundant resource in South Africa. Its fleet of coal-fired power stations were producing more than enough energy to meet the country's needs when white-minority rule ended in 1994.

Demand soared after that, driven by rapid economic growth and by the extension of coverage to deprived black townships. The BBC's Milton Nkosi in Johannesburg says Eskom acquired millions of consumers in the post-apartheid years, but its expansion was hindered by mismanagement and corruption.

Swift action was needed to feed the grid, but none was taken. Only with shortages looming in the mid-2000s did the government announce a costly overhaul, including plans for two huge new power plants - Kusile and Medupi.

How bad is the crisis at Eskom for South Africa?

The load shedding further cuts into Eskom's revenues and also hurts the economy at large, lowering industrial output and business productivity. But the cost of temporary power outages is nothing compared to the potential damage to the economy if Eskom were to go bust.

The firm has recently been described by government officials as "technically insolvent" and in a "death spiral". It owes nearly 420bn rand (£23bn; $30bn) - an enormous sum on which it can barely even afford the interest payments.

More than half of Eskom's debt is guaranteed by the government, accounting for 15% of the national debt. International banks have described Eskom as the single biggest threat to South Africa's economy.

To save Eskom, the government could be asked to inject more money into the utility, and to assume responsibility for yet more of its debt.

But it is not clear where the government would find the resources to do so. The economy is already faltering and any bailout of Eskom could harm South Africa's credit rating, making matters worse.