Johannesburg (AFP)

Mines at a standstill, shops closing in the middle of the day, bank card payments impossible: the unprecedented power cuts affecting South Africa are seriously threatening its already fragile economy.

The first industrial power of the continent has returned to load shedding for a week but Monday, the crisis has suddenly worsened.

For several hours, the public electricity company Eskom rationed 6,000 megawatts on a capacity of 44,000 MW, the worst cuts the country has known so far.

That day, the shops of this commercial center of Johannesburg, its economic capital, closed one by one at midday. It was not time for the lunch break, no, but that of the load shedding.

"We must immediately close because there could be theft", anti-theft gantries being out of use for lack of power, told AFP a saleswoman.

The cuts can not hurt more for the shops: in this festive period, they realize a good part of their turnover of the year.

They primarily affect small entrepreneurs "because they can not afford alternative solutions" like generators or solar panels, says the chairman of the board of black entrepreneurs, Kganki Matabane.

A scrap of the neighborhood has remained open, but his boss is angry. Customers can no longer pay by credit card.

Eskom, which supplies more than 90% of electricity in South Africa, has as usual justified its cuts by technical problems. Its coal plants, the bulk of its production, have an average age of 37 years.

- Slow Mines -

This time, the group also made another explanation that provoked some sarcasm: heavy rainfall wet its coal stocks.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who had returned hastily from abroad because of the crisis, for his part attributed part of the cuts to "acts of sabotage". Again, the explanation is poorly made.

These historic power cuts have quickly affected large industries. Starting with mines - one of the biggest contributors to South Africa's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - which has been idling in recent days.

The cuts "have a devastating effect on the mining sector," warned Chamber of Mines President Roger Baxter.

"Most mining companies will have lost a week of production and this affects their viability," he said, as the country is already struggling with an endemic unemployment rate (29%).

On Monday, the Petra Diamonds group closed its Cullinan, Finsch and Koffiefontein mines. His miners had to be rushed to the surface so as not to get stuck in the bowels of the earth.

The AngloAmerican platinum giant has run its generators, but "this is not a viable solution because it is expensive," told AFP spokesman Sibusiso Tshabalala.

When South Africa is plunged into the dark, all of its industry is clinking, and the image of the country with.

- 'Fatal blow' -

Hundreds of tourists hoping to enjoy the breathtaking views of Cape Town from Table Mountain were stranded in the air for three hours on Monday in the cable car that leads to the summit.

To prevent the total collapse of the network, Eskom has introduced rolling shedding of four hours since 2008.

South Africans have learned, as many people in the rest of the continent, to live with. A mobile phone app that lists cuts, usually scheduled, has been a huge success these past few days helping them to anticipate laundry and meal preparation.

For many experts and users, the current crisis is the price to pay for the years of mismanagement and corruption that prevailed under the presidency of Jacob Zuma (2009-2018).

Eskom is on the brink. The group is crumbling under an abysmal debt of 26 billion euros, despite several bailouts of the state that injected in three years 128 billion rand (7.8 billion euros).

Cyril Ramaphosa, in power since 2018, promised to clean up public companies. Without tangible result.

The current blackouts "are the fatal blow" to South Africa's economy, which has never recovered from the global financial crisis of 2008, said Indigo Ellis, an analyst at Verisk Maplecroft.

Growth contracted further by 0.6% in the third quarter of 2019, after falling 3.2% in the first quarter.

Delestages "spell the end of GDP growth in the fourth quarter," warned Ellis, who has already warned, along with other experts, the risks of recession.

© 2019 AFP