For months, 60 million South Africans have been without power for up to twelve hours a day.

The country declared a state of national disaster in February: the coal-fired power stations are dilapidated, breakdowns are frequent and the coffers are empty.

But the origin of the crisis goes back several decades.

Eskom "represents a source of enormous frustration and ridicule" in the country, summarizes Kyle Cowan, author of "Sabotage", a book detailing the horrors of the century-old company.

However, it is proud of its history, which is closely linked to that of modern South Africa.

Its website recalls that "the good inhabitants of Kimberley", a mecca for diamond mining, were among the first in the world to equip themselves with electric lighting in 1882, "even ahead of London".

Gold had been found where Johannesburg was going to be established, the mines needed energy.

With coal present in abundance, power plants were built, taken over by Eskom from the 1940s.

But one thing had not been anticipated: the end of white domination.

In 1987, only 40% of South Africans, almost all white, had access to electricity.

Racial segregation also excludes blacks from access to the current.

Demonstration in Pretoria against power cuts, January 20, 2023 © Phill Magakoe / AFP

Democratic elections in 1994, which made former convict Nelson Mandela president, were followed by an ambitious campaign to electrify millions of homes and keep prices low.

But the company would later recognize that during those years "very little" was done in parallel to increase production capacity, which laid the foundations for the current problems.

Alert ignored

Most power plants today are over 45 years old and frequently break down.

"Eskom was mismanaged until the collapse," said Mr Cowan.

For Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, recently interviewed by AFP, the most worrying is "the debt, which makes it difficult to move forward quickly, in particular to modernize the power stations".

In 1998, a government white paper warned: Given the increase in demand, the country will run out of electricity within ten years if new power plants are not built.

Eskom's regional office in Johannesburg, January 31, 2023 © - / AFP/Archives

President Thabo Mbeki ignores it.

He will later apologize.

Eskom only launched the construction of two new power stations in 2007, the year of the first load shedding.

Design problems and delays in construction, these projects lead to monstrous cost overruns, accompanied by suspicions of corruption.

Under the presidency of Jacob Zuma (2009-2018), marked by an unprecedented level of corruption, Eskom became one of the main targets of the organized looting of state resources.

Millions of euros are misappropriated, in particular through public contracts awarded to companies in exchange for bribes.

Eskom now has a debt of nearly 21 billion euros, which the government is trying to pay off.

Last year, a former CEO was arrested for money laundering and fraud.

Eskom has had more than ten CEOs in fifteen years.

Suffocating Corruption

At the end of February, the outgoing CEO of Eskom, André de Ruyter, compared corruption within the public company to a cancer which would have "metastasized", explicitly accusing the ANC in power of profiting from it.

Damning example among many others, the purchase of knee pads for workers cleaning the ducts: at 15 euros in the trade, a buyer from Eskom ordered a certain number of them at 4,000 euros each.

A train leaves the Hendrina power station, after unloading coal, on February 22, 2018 © MARCO LONGARI / AFP/Archives

Sanitation attempts have met with fierce internal resistance, he said during this shock interview, also recounting how he had survived an attempted cyanide poisoning, slipped into his coffee.

"Corruption is not the root of the energy crisis but it is one of the main reasons it is unresolved," said economist Roula Inglesi-Lotz in Pretoria.

Eskom, which employs 30,000 people, has blamed part of its problems on sabotage, the theft of coal and parts by organized mafia cartels, as well as bad payers, including some cities, which do not pay their bills.

South Africa still gets 80% of its electricity from coal.

Lagging behind in a transition to clean energy, the government, backed by powerful unions, maintains a protectionist stance towards the coal industry, which employs nearly 100,000 people.

It was only last year that some barriers were lifted to allow private power generation projects.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised to appoint an electricity minister.

But it will be a long time before power outages become history.

“There is no miracle solution,” notes Ms. Inglesi-Lotz.

© 2023 AFP