The failures of Eskom are partly a result of the government’s neglect to implement its own policy, experts say, as the restructuring of Eskom has been an official policy since 1998 and is still yet to be fully implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is according to energy analyst Chris Yelland, who referred to the Department of Minerals and Energy White Paper on the Energy Policy of the Republic of South Africa, published in 1998, in an interview<\/a> with Newzroom Afrika. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The paper provided a background to South Africa\u2019s energy sector, key policy challenges, and the government\u2019s proposed policies \u2013 including implementation, monitoring, and evaluation details to meet the country\u2019s electricity needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Yelland, the White Paper warned that Eskom’s surplus generation capacity would be fully utilised by 2007 unless the government took action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite this, the government did nothing, and by 2007, Eskom was unable to meet the electricity demand and had to resort to load shedding to prevent a nationwide blackout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fast forward over a decade, and, on average, South Africans spent less than 30 minutes per day without power in 2021 before rocketing to 2.25 hours in 2022 and 4.8 hours in 2023 \u2013 with analysts expecting load shedding to remain in 2024 at around 2.6 blackout hours per day, or 39.8 accumulated days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n