In South Africa, state power company Eskom announced it may have to widen power cuts this weekend as labor protests disrupt operations. The company has been struggling to meet the demand for power in South Africa for over a decade. Eskom has been implementing rotational outages since the beginning of the week and will increase the intensity of them over the weekend.
Eskom is attempting to unlock the deadlocked conversations about wages with the Unions, which is driving the protests. The protests have included intimidation of the working employees and blockades on the roads leading to company power stations. Eskom has asked the police to assist them in restoring order. Reforming eskom is a priority for President Cyril Ramaphosa, however, the reforms are yet to make an impact. Eskom has a capacity of 46,000MW but, on Friday, over 20,000MW was offline due to planned maintenance and breakdowns.
Read more: Protests force South Africa’s Eskom to widen power cuts
