South African President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered the keynote address on Sunday as the African National Congress marked its 111th year, prioritizing the country’s energy crisis and economic challenges in his speech at Mangaung, Free State. Ramaphosa, re-elected as ANC leader in December despite being the subject of recent corruption investigations,…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Electricity providers in Zimbabwe have been forced to stop generating hydropower at the Kariba South power station due to the ongoing low water levels affecting the Kariba Dam at Lake Kariba. The site supports power for both Zimbabwe and Zambia, with the Zambezi River Authority governing the use of resources…
Two members of the Gupta family, wanted in South Africa in connection with a years-long “state capture” corruption investigation involving multiple entities and officials, have been taken into custody in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The arrest of Rajesh and Atul Gupta was confirmed late Monday by the Ministry of…
South Africa’s chief justice has called for the criminal prosecution of former executives and board members of Eskom, the struggling South African energy utility at the center of a lengthy corruption investigation into associates of former president Jacob Zuma. The latest installment of the State Capture Commission reports, released Friday…
President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered a State of the Nation Address Thursday to South Africans weary of the faltering economy and anxious about the prospects for the future. “Our history tells us that when we are united in peace and faith, we can conquer all obstacles and turn our country into…
South Africa was the latest African nation to be battered by extreme weather, as flooding rains led to water rescues and swaths of the nation were thrown into the dark by damage to facilities of state-owned utility provider Eskom. The national weather service warned that rains were expected to continue…
Frustrated South Africans suffered through another round of power cuts on Thursday evening, as embattled state utility provider Eskom warned that it needed to extend the load shedding “in order to protect the power system from a total collapse.” Eskom had earlier warned of the potential for power cuts because…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Following last week’s round of power cuts, South African utility provider Eskom said Monday that the likelihood of load-shedding episodes in the coming week was low – but some South Africans said they were still seeing hours-long blackouts anyway. “The system remains constrained and vulnerable and any unexpected shift, such…
Eskom customers in South Africa are enduring yet another round of load shedding this week. The beleaguered public utility, seeking a bailout for its massive debt and caught up in South Africa’s “state capture” corruption drama, started cutting power to customers again on a rotating basis. On Monday, Stage 4…
South Africans are looking at another round of load-shedding on Wednesday, as struggling utility provider Eskom will implement Stage 3 restrictions from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m. – a level that allows for 3000 MW of the national power load to be reduced, cutting it off to customers in two-…
South Africans are looking at another round of load-shedding on Tuesday, as struggling utility provider Eskom will implement Stage 3 restrictions from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m. – a level that allows for 3000 MW of the national power load to be reduced, cutting it off to customers in two-…
Environmental protection advocates at Greenpeace have stepped up to demand that South African power utility Eskom comply with the country’s Minimum Emissions Standards, rather than receive approval for continued waivers and postponements for excessive emissions. The Greenpeace activists say Eskom, with 17 coal-fired power plants, exceeded the limits for particulate…
More than 1,000 miners in South Africa trapped below ground since Wednesday night are safe, following the restoration of power following a storm-related outage. The miners at a Sibanye-Stillwater Beatrix gold mine near Welkom were brought to the surface early Friday morning after power was restored at about 3 a.m.,…
As climate leaders prepare for COP23 in Bonn, Germany, next week, a new UN assessment shows that national pledges will deliver only a third of the carbon emissions reduction needed to meet 2030 climate targets. That means that even under the best of circumstances – for example, the United States…
The financial services firm KPMG South Africa announced a major shakeup in leadership following an internal investigation of its practices while doing work for the wealthy Gupta family at the center of the country’s corruption inquiries. It’s the latest move amid allegations of financial scandal that have swept the country….
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times