During the Brics summit, the host city will be without power for 13 hours

Sandton, South Africa, will suffer for 13 hours with power cuts scheduled from August 22nd to 24th, the date on which the BRICS summit will be held. The region, which is north of Johannesburg, will host most of the events and is where President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) is staying. The light interruption, however, should not disturb the summit’s programming, since most hotels and event centers have power generators.

The state electricity company of South Africa, Eskom, introduced in 2008 the load shedding –policy of planned blackouts by country based on a rotating schedule. The purpose of the measure is to manage demand and encourage energy savings during peak periods, in order to reduce outages due to lack of supply. Since then, the population has suffered from power cuts that have lasted up to 12 hours.

A South Africa faces the peak of an energy crisis that has hit the country since 2008. The main reason is the inability of the Eskom to meet the demand of the population. The company is responsible for supplying around 95% of the country’s electricity. It operates, in 2023, with 53.6% of its plants, since 36.5% of them are out of operation for “unplanned reasons”.

Through a mobile application and the government website, the population can consult the cuts scheduled for the week in each city or suburb of the country.

The power cuts carried out by Eskom directly affect the country’s economy. Businesses, hospitals and water services are constantly affected by blackouts. The country’s economic growth in 2023 should be 0.9% due to the energy crisis, a figure lower than that recorded in 2022, of 2.5%.

Find out which Brics events will be held under power cut:

Tuesday (22.Aug.2023)

• cut: from 4 am to 6:30 am and from 8 pm to 10:30 pm;
• Events Affected: BRICS Leaders’ Retreat meeting –starts at 6 pm and should stretch until after 8 pm;

Wednesday (23.Aug.2023)

• cut: from 4 am to 5:30 am and 12pm to 1am4h30;
• Affected events: Extended plenary session of the 15th BRICS summit –starts at 11 am and should stretch into the afternoon.

Thursday (24.Aug.2023)

• cut: from 4 am to 5:30 am and das 8 pm to 10 pmh30;
• Affected Events: Banquet Hosted by the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosacountries and authorities guests –it will be dinner in the evening, which should last until after 8 pm.

energy crisis

After the 1994 multiracial elections, when Nelson Mandela was elected president, the government of South Africa began to provide basic services, such as electricity, to areas previously neglected by the regime of racial segregation.

As a result, there was a sudden increase in demand and state-owned Eskom was unable to expand the supply network. Since then, the company has accumulated a history of financial losses, suspected mismanagement, corruption and political interference.

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