NEWS ANALYSIS: The electric light at the end of the tunnel is years away

How long will SA’s power cuts last?

Eskom CEO André de Ruyter has told South Africans to expect load-shedding for the next 18 months while Eskom catches up on maintenance and takes units out of service on a planned schedule. But looking at the performance of Eskom’s plant, the time it will take to procure and build new capacity and the regulatory hurdles to self-generation, 18 months is optimistic. A more realistic time frame is three years.