Lights out: Inside the politics, corruption fuming South Africa’s struggle with load shedding It has become a recurring scene across South Africa’s urban centres and townships: the lights flicker once or twice and then go out altogether. For more than 15 years, since the first wave of load shedding in 2007, rolling blackouts have become woven into daily life. The National Development Plan 2030 describes them as a “national crisis” that undermines economic growth and social well-being. In 2023 alone, not a single day was free from load shedding until the government declared a reprieve late in the year, affirming how deeply embedded power instability had become in the South African psyche. At the heart of this crisis is Eskom, the state-owned utility responsible for over 90 percent of the country’s electricity. Built on a legacy of heavy reliance on coal, much of its infrastructure dates from the 1960s to the 1980s and operates well beyond its intended lifespan. Mismanagement, corruption and strategic inertia have crippled its ability to meet demand, driving up debt to R419 billion ( $30.8 billion) by 2019.