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DA warns load shedding could slide SA into recession

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The DA has warned that load shedding could sink the country into recession. Eskom said the load shedding was due to a shortage of capacity and a highly constrained system.

DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises, Ghaleb Cachalia, says load shedding affects the lifeblood of the economy.

“It affects the lifeblood of our economy. It affects our citizens. It affects our industries. It affects our commercial enterprises. This could push us into recession very, very easily. Eskom is run like a secret enterprise. The nation has to be taken into its confidence. They have to tell us what they’re doing; when they’re doing; how they’re doing it, and we have to make sure that we fix this country and we can fix this country only if we fix Eskom.”

Citizens have been advised to check the load shedding schedule on Eskom’s website.

Energy analyst Chris Yelland says the current load shedding will have an impact on the GDP in the fourth quarter if it continues for more than a week. Eskom has ramped up Stage 2 load shedding to Stage 4 amid accusations of continued poor maintenance and concerns about wet coal.

Stats SA earlier this week announced that the economy had contracted by 0.6% in the third quarter and it said load shedding had an impact on growth figures in the second quarter.

Yelland says load shedding is very harmful to the economy.

“The load shedding earlier this year (2019) showed some significant influence in slowing down growth, in fact taking it negative earlier this year. So, this kind of load shedding does have economic impact, but it really all depends on how long the load shedding last for. If load shedding is just one day then it doesn’t have much impact, but if we have a week or two of load shedding then it has a significant impact on GDP. So, let’s just see how this pens out, but it doesn’t look good at the moment.”

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