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Power rationing is what lies ahead for South Africa in order to confront
with the electricity crisis which triggered power cuts across the country and
neighbor states.
The most affected countries are Zimbabwe
and Mozambique.
The daily power cuts which occurred recently led to chaos, according to BBC
News.
After a delay of two hours on trains which occurred on
Friday in Pretoria,
the anger commuters set on fire the trains.
In Johannesburg
small businesses are threatened to be crippled by the blackouts.
According to Nelisiwe Makubane, deputy director general of
the mines and minerals ministry, the government of President Thabo Mbeki was
setting the regulations with the power utility Eskom that will be announced next
week. The regulations will then be implemented after 90 days.
She said: “Once we have received public comments then the
regulator and Eskom will implement those regulations, which will include among
other things, incentives for people to move to power rationing and also
penalties to make sure that people stick to what they are committed to,” Forbes
reports.
Last month Mbeki acknowledged that the government was wrong
to decline the request made by Eskom several years ago regarding more
investment in power generation.
Mbeki said: “We were wrong. Eskom was right.”
In order to keep the electricity going, the African National
Congress recommended the development of the national response plan.
Saturday night Zimbabwe suffered from a black-out,
but later on the power was back on.
Sunday Mbeki held talks with Eskom regarding the situation.
According to analysts, this will scare the foreign investors.
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