Many companies will be forced to cut more jobs as the country’s energy situation continues to deteriorate and with the fluctuating rolling blackout stages, the Energy Council of South Africa (ECSA) says.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the Energy Department will take over the responsibility of overseeing Eskom which has been failing to meet the nation’s power demand since 2008.
Eskom is currently implementing Stage 4 rolling blackouts during the day and stage six in the evenings until further notice.
It says it will implement stage four daily between 5am and 16h00 this afternoon.
The council’s CEO James Mackay says the impact on the economy due to the energy crisis is immeasurable.
Mackay says, “We are quite rapidly just winding down the economic machinery in terms of industry. Even small, medium enterprises just can not afford a billboard. I have seen far too many examples of companies literally saying that if nothing is done to improve the situation in 2023, they are gonna have to start cutting jobs.”
“Really, we have to deal with it with a sense of urgency,” says Mackay.
Nersa deadline for Eskom tariff hike extended
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) was granted an extension to make a decision on Eskom’s application to hike its tariff by 32%.
The extension came after a court had ordered Nersa to make the decision on Eskom’s application on or before December 24, 2022.
The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria extended the deadline to January 12, 2023.
Eskom is also requesting a further 9.4%.
Load shedding adversely impacting manufacturing sector
Data published by Statistics South Africa reflects the adverse impact of load shedding and muted global economic growth on the manufacturing sector.
Manufacturing production decreased by 1.1% in November 2022, compared with November 2021.
The largest negative contributions came from food and beverages, wood and wood products, as well as petroleum and chemical products.
Analysts say while load shedding has been a deterrent for the manufacturing sector, high input costs have also weighed heavy on the sector in the past couple of months.
The manufacturing sector is showing signs of taking the strain:
