---
title: "South Africa could take a year or more to end power cuts -Eskom official"
description: "JOHANNESBURG, Sept 12 (Reuters) - South African government plans to end recurring power cuts could take at least a year to deliver results, a top executive at struggling utility Eskom said on Monday."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "Energy"
author: "Reuters"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/reuters/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-09-12-south-africa-could-take-a-year-or-more-to-end-power-cuts-eskom-official/"
published: "2022-09-12T13:52:57"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 182
---

# South Africa could take a year or more to end power cuts -Eskom official

> JOHANNESBURG, Sept 12 (Reuters) - South African government plans to end recurring power cuts could take at least a year to deliver results, a top executive at struggling utility Eskom said on Monday.

By Reuters · Published 12 September 2022, 15:52 SAST

## Content

Africa's most industrialised economy is set for its worst year of electricity outages, despite President Cyril Ramaphosa pledging new moves to tackle the crisis in July.

State-owned Eskom implemented extensive power cuts last week and is scheduled to do so again this week.

"We have various plans in place, I believe very good plans...however this is going to take time to implement," Eskom Chief Operating Officer Jan Oberholzer said, adding: "For the next 12 months or so we may not see the required benefits."

Oberholzer told a news briefing that the performance of Eskom's fleet of ageing, unreliable coal-fired power stations continued to deteriorate. He said 42 generating units, or almost 24,000 megawatts of capacity, tripped last week, with some units breaking down more than once.

Mid-way through its financial year, Eskom has spent 7.7 billion rand ($451 million) on diesel to run emergency generators, far in excess of the budgeted amount, Oberholzer added, calling it a serious concern.

"It's really a difficult situation we find ourselves in," he told reporters.

(Reporting by Alexander Winning and Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by Alexander Smith)