South Africa braces for dark winter as energy crisis bites

South Africa, the continent's most industrialized country, is in the grip of an energy crisis that critics say is much deeper
than the authorities openly acknowledge.

The periodic electricity blackouts are expected to reach a critical stage as winter arrives in the Southern Hemisphere and sends energy demand soaring, experts warn.

Over the past 15 years, South Africa's electricity crisis has been deepening, with power shortages blamed on
insufficient investments in the country's ageing coal-fired power plants.
The crisis has worsened over the past 12 months, with the country spared the debilitating rolling blackouts, known as load shedding, only on Christmas Day, New Year's Day and a handful of other occasions.
To manage the shortfalls, the state-owned power company Eskom imposes daily scheduled rationing to cope with the production shortfalls.

But more recently the power cuts have lengthened, and many people are forced to
endure blackouts of up to 12 hours a day.
Under pressure to end the power cuts, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared in February a National State of
Disaster, a legal move introduced to prioritize efforts to address the problem.

He also appointed an electricity minister, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, with the sole task of ending the blackouts.
But Ramokgopa, a civil engineer and former mayor of Pretoria, has run into a series of obstacles, analysts say.
Not least, the state of disaster was revoked after about two months, even though electricity supply has yet to improve.
In recent days power supplies have plummeted to levels even below the output officially communicated by the government, analysts say, denouncing an attempt by authorities to assuage public fury.
"They are...