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South Africa Declares 'State of Disaster' on Power (aljazeera.com) 75

Posted by msmash from the growing-pains dept.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared a state of disaster with immediate effect to deal with the country's severe electricity crisis including prolonged daily power blackouts. From a report: "Extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures. The energy crisis is an existential threat to our economy and social fabric," said Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation address on Thursday night. The declaration of a state of disaster comes as rolling power cuts of up to eight hours per day are hitting homes, factories and businesses across the nation of 60 million. The state of disaster is an emergency measure previously implemented to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the deadly floods that killed more than 400 people last year.

According to Ramaphosa, the declaration will enable his government to exempt essential services like hospitals and water treatment plants from power blackouts and enable the government to buy additional power from neighbouring countries on an emergency basis. It will also enable the government to assist businesses to deal with the effects of widespread power cuts, including making diesel-powered generators and solar panels more widely available. The country's power utility Eskom is unable to produce adequate power due to frequent breakdowns at its ageing coal-fired power stations and years of corruption.
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South Africa Declares 'State of Disaster' on Power More

South Africa Declares 'State of Disaster' on Power

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  • Can't be lack of money (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    They have plenty of money to spend on swanning about with Ruzzian warships to show how all grown up and tough and rich they are.

    Not sure why their new found friends aren't helping out.

  • sounds like an job for nuclear power!

    • They failed to renew [biznews.com] the contract... good luck!

    • sounds like an job for nuclear power!

      Yes, because South Africa is such a technically advanced nation. I'm sure there's an abundance of people there that can support nuclear infrastructure.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by bleedingobvious ( 6265230 )

        I'm sure there's an abundance of people there that can support nuclear infrastructure.

        There was... The racist policies, political meddling and outright criminality implemented by the ANC saw them supplanted by incompetent cadres

        Shockingly, they left

        • Yes that's right actually. They had a nuclear program and had their own nuclear weapons too. South Africa was a first world industrialized state at par with North America in pretty much every way at the time and in cities, indistinguishable from the United States.

          I've been to South Africa, the running joke back in the early 2000's was "what is the difference between South Africa and Zimbabwe (Rhodesia)..?

          "..about 15 years".

          Regrettably it seems the joksters were right after all.

          When I was there, South Africa

      • Uhm ⦠The country developed nuclear weapons in the 1970â(TM)s, is an exporter of isotopes used in nuclear medicine, performed the worldâ(TM)s first heart transplant etc etc.
  • Only in Africa can incompetence, ignorance, self-delusion, corruption and negligence achieve National Disaster status

  • enable the government to buy additional power from neighbouring countries on an emergency basis

    This works as long as neighbouring countries have excess energy to sell. Once they enter in crisis mode themselves, it all goes "poof".

    unable to produce adequate power due to frequent breakdowns at its ageing coal-fired power stations and years of corruption.

    You can make a parallel between what happened in South Africa, and what is currently happening in most countries:
    - Strong subsidies toward wind/solar, which can't provide enough baseload capacity for an entire country, since 20 years. And don't start with the "just add batteries" bullshit, this is just offsetting the problem elsewhere (on minerals availability for instance)
    -

    • Re:A glimpse of what is to come (Score:4, Informative)

      by saloomy ( 2817221 ) on Friday February 10, 2023 @12:48PM (#63282097)

      This works as long as neighbouring countries have excess energy to sell. Once they enter in crisis mode themselves, it all goes "poof".

      Which in many cases will never happen. For example, Nepal has been selling power to India from its' vast hydropower production for decades.

      You can make a parallel between what happened in South Africa, and what is currently happening in most countries:

      No you can not.

      - Strong subsidies toward wind/solar, which can't provide enough baseload capacity for an entire country, since 20 years. And don't start with the "just add batteries" bullshit, this is just offsetting the problem elsewhere (on minerals availability for instance)

      The only thing that smells like utter bullshit is the claim that there aren't enough minerals. Modern batteries are now cobalt free, and there is more than enough lithium in our oceans to store all the energy human civilization consumes in a year. Building batteries to cover the night or windless days is a problem of manufacturing, not mineral constraints.

      - As a result, lack of investment in baseload power generators, so you end up relying on aging plants (gas, nuclear...)

      This is a result of lack of investment in any power generators. Nuclear is a great option...

      For instance, Germany either relies on gas-powered plants for baseload (but gas is going to run out), coal-powered plants (hence the fact that they just can't stop mining lignite in their own backyard), or by buying electricity from neighbors (like the nuclear-based one from France).

      Maybe they did not expect to not be able to buy enough Russian gas, even with the war. Who knew the US would blow up their pipeline?

      Different country, same example: during last week strikes in France, the equivalent of 3 reactor output was shutdown in France. As a result, less energy was available for sale to the UK, which was on the verge to restart coal plants...

      Equivalent? What was actually shut down? Did the UK actually restart their coal plants? Thank goodness they are there for peaks, as needed.

      The thing is that even in France, which relies heavily on nuclear energy, greenies are fighting and have been fighting the creation and research on new reactors.

      No real greenie opposes nuclear power. Anyone who does is from oil and gas lobby, and using the environment as a false scapegoat. Real environmentalists ought to love Nuclear power (unless they are just dumb and cant comprehend the nature of energy generation).

      What happens when France starts exporting less energy, and the neighboring countries can't provide their baseload needs? Guess we will end up buying our electricity from China, as they are the ones actually building nuclear reactors (at the rate of 1 going online every 6 month at the moment). The geopolitical considerations of that are going to be interesting in the oncoming years.

      Europe is not a geographic position to buy electricity from China.

      • Re:A glimpse of what is to come (Score:5, Insightful)

        by kaatochacha ( 651922 ) on Friday February 10, 2023 @12:57PM (#63282115)

        No real greenie opposes nuclear power. Anyone who does is from oil and gas lobby, and using the environment as a false scapegoat. Real environmentalists ought to love Nuclear power (unless they are just dumb and cant comprehend the nature of energy generation).

        Yeah, no. I know quite a few party line greenies who appose oil, any form of carbon creating power, all mining ( but like batteries , electricity, solar) hate dams, but love hydroelectric ( there's no logic here)and most definitively despise dirty, evil nuclear.

        • Nuclear by measure of deaths per terrawatt hour, is the least evil. It makes the lowest ton of waste / energy, and makes the fuewest deaths / unit of energy. Like I said, your acquaintances who Oppose it do not comprehend the data.

        • What they actually oppose is Capitalism. They realize the best way of overthrowing Capitalism is through extreme energy shortages, which would bring industrialized society to its knees, their true intent.

      • The only thing that smells like utter bullshit is the claim that there aren't enough minerals. Modern batteries are now cobalt free, and there is more than enough lithium in our oceans to store all the energy human civilization consumes in a year. Building batteries to cover the night or windless days is a problem of manufacturing, not mineral constraints.
        Unless you're using some new definition of "modern", which means seven years from now(when the blueprint for eliminating cobalt from batteries takes effe

      • No real greenie opposes nuclear power. Anyone who does is from oil and gas lobby, and using the environment as a false scapegoat.

        Please don't put a no true Scotsman fallacy in there. Greenies well and truly oppose nuclear power. You know damn well who he was referring to. Guys like
        Greenpeace: https://www.greenpeace.org/usa... [greenpeace.org]
        Extinction Rebellion: https://twitter.com/Extinction... [twitter.com]
        Friends of the Earth: https://foe.org/projects/nucle... [foe.org]
        You know, really big fans of the oil and gas industry /s.

    • The thing about the neighboring countries of South Africa is that they are either

      less developed,
      not exactly friendly to SA or
      both of them.

    • Lying online needs to become punishable or you fucking shills will never shut up.

    • One day California will be like South Africa. Stuff breaking down left and right. Corruption is rampant. Local citizenry are clueless to fix it.

      Ahhh...must be nice living the life in Hollyweird where that future is NOW.

  • Real talent on display (Score:5, Insightful)

    by spaceyhackerlady ( 462530 ) on Friday February 10, 2023 @12:43PM (#63282081)

    To screw up a country with as much potential as South Africa that badly takes real talent. A quick check of my usual reference [cia.gov] says that the bulk of South Africa's electricity comes from fossil fuels. With South Africa's enormous reserves of just about everything this shouldn't be an issue.

    ...laura

    • The thing is, if you don't have the people to get that stuff out of the ground, you can sit on as much fossil fuel as you could want to and still wouldn't get anything done.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      Other part of the problem is global push for "green" intermittents over stable base power, which specifically included massive subsidies from developed world to developing nations in exchange of not building up new base power and instead building up wind and solar.

      SA is just the first in line, as it's among the most developed, industrialized and corrupt. So leadership happily goes for easy money, pops up solar/wind which can't supply base power but looks good on paper on "nominal capacity", forego new base

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday February 10, 2023 @01:12PM (#63282159)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • No one saw this coming... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mikeiver1 ( 1630021 ) on Friday February 10, 2023 @01:19PM (#63282185)
    You had decades of oppression of the blacks under apartheid where you failed to integrate and train the black population in the basics of operating and maintaining the infrastructure. The government finally snaps and collapses and the bottom rail is now on top. Problem is that they lack the skills and knowledge to now run and maintain the systems put in place by the whites. Of course those that could have fled the country to other greener pastures leaving all to fight against the inevitability of entropy. Farms that once produced food are gone. Energy distribution is failing and sub standard. The few at the top skim all they can and will eventually run off when it gets to bad too. The inevitability of the results are of no surprise at all!

    • So much wrong. So little time.

      South Africa was another victim of the world playing proxy wars. The black population actively rejected education as offered because their leaders were playing out their communist freedom hero fantasies.

      African cultures are not great at discouraging criminality. African cultures suck at personal responsibility, ownership, problem solving and planning for the future. They're significantly weighted toward subsistence and have no concept of future outcomes.

      The ruling ANC are perp

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by labnet ( 457441 )

      Spare me with poor black man trope.
      Go read the book ‘The State Of Africa’.
      It a repeated story of colonisers building government and infrastructure then the native Africans gaining independence then corruption and incompetence decaying those systems.
      Generations genetic low IQ make it difficult for native Africans to run a complex modern society. And every time I hear , oh it whites oppressing the blacks, and a hundred years of catch-up. Sure that is part of the problem, but the primary cause of

      • I've seen and read so much on this topic that I'm convinced a big part of the "problem" is with the culture of many African ethnic groups, and it's the same problem as with indigenous cultures in North America. The "problem" with cultures like those two is their approach to life as a collective, versus individualistic effort. Their cultures take a true community approach and no one is left behind. I put the word problem in quotes, because I think their model of society is one a lot of people today advocate

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DMJC ( 682799 )
        I read that book while I was in South Africa, more of the continents issues were caused by nations actively engaging in the slave trade and de-investing in industry/development. Your country was either conquered and your people sold into slavery, or you invested heavily into military/slavery and captured/sold the people you were opposing. Then colonization came, stripped away resources/civil structures, redesigned infrastructure to plunder the nations wealth etc. Pro-independence movements were backed by th

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DMJC ( 682799 )
      I've been to South Africa, most people on this forum would struggle to comprehend how bad the situation is/was. The apartheid government prevented Black South Africans from having any education beyond high school. Intelligent labor was done by imported Indian workers. So there was a three-tiered system. University educated Whites, Tafe/Trade College educated Indians, and uneducated/manual labor Blacks. The legacy of this is horrible. Even now you can go into a Woolworths supermarket in South Africa, and spe
      • White South African here. I finished secondary/high school in the late 1980s at a technical school = prepared kids for a start in trade/vocational careers or further training in technical/scientific fields. In my final school year ("matric") there was a country-wide maths competition, and the 20 best scorers from technical schools were invited by the selfsame Eskom (national electricity supplier) for a visit over a school holiday (around 10 days long) with an eye on recruiting us to take up bursaries from t

  • Or maybe the EV zealots should wake the fuck up and start understanding that the only two continents that can even think about starting to support EVs are Europe and North America, and even then that is on VERY shaky ground. The rest of the world where 80% of humans live, simply does not have the infrastructure to support the energy needs of EVs. Even places like South Africa who are supposed to be at least somewhat of an advanced country. It is easier to build wind turbines along the oceans and use them to

  • Corruption at the highest levels (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bb_matt ( 5705262 ) on Friday February 10, 2023 @01:41PM (#63282283)

    Prior to the end of apartheid, the energy grid was largely built to service white people - the privileged few.
    Whilst inroads have been made since to service a wider population, sadly corruption has resulted in that grid not expanding enough based on demand.
    Much of the infrastructure of South Africa is crumbling due to under-investment.

    My brother lives in Johannesburg.
    He is one of the lucky few who have the means to curtail the worst of the issue.
    Initially, he was relying on a diesel generator to cover the periods when the power was down, which were relatively short compared to now.
    He's now installed an 8kw solar system, out of necessity to keep his home business running.

    It is very sad, as South Africa has an abundance of sun and in the Cape, an abundance of both wind and wave power.
    It also still has huge coal reserves and has two nuclear power stations still in operation.

    This is a classic case of corruption and mismanagement to the highest level.

    It didn't have to happen.

    The water infrastructure is also crumbling with hardly any investment over the last few decades.
    It is just a matter of time before that starts to fail too.

    • On the plus side, for South Africa, the people are incredibly creative and resilient.

      When the government continues to let them down, they make a plan - they deserve so much better than the scumbags who run the country.

      It breaks my heart, as South Africa is such a beautiful place with so much potential.
      Sadly, the history and the exploitation over hundreds of years has resulted in a toxic power grabbing situation.

      I still believe South Africa can rise above the problems it has - and it will one day.
      Well worth

  • Look it up

  • This is entirely the fault of the ANC. Their ridiculous Marxist philosophy, coupled with a breathtaking degree of stupidity have caused the crisis. Putting 'cadres' into positions for which they have absolutely no qualifications or experience; rampant theft of already scarce resources; and an utterly spineless leader are to blame. If you are a South African, I urge you to vote next year to remove these clowns--and in the meantime buy solar panels and go off-grid.

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