South Africa Declares Electricity Emergency, Will Impose Power Rationing - AP [View All]

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CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa will ration electricity, increase prices and encourage a switch to solar energy, all part of emergency measures now being undertaken amid power outages that have caused chaos and misery nationwide and threatened to choke economic growth.

Neighbors like Botswana and Namibia, which rely heavily on South African energy exports, have also been badly hit by the disruptions in the region's economic and political powerhouse. The outages have undermined confidence in South Africa, with more incidents like the stranding of hundreds of people on tourism icon Table Mountain spreading through the media to other countries.

South African businesses have been crippled by the outages, which usually occur without warning. In an indication of the severity of the crisis, major mining companies including AngloGold, Harmony and Gold Fields Ltd. suspended work at some of their mines Friday for fear power cuts would trap workers underground. Gold Fields said it stopped all its South African operations, including in the world's biggest gold mine, which produce 7,000 ounces per day. The trade union Solidarity said nearly 30,000 miners on the morning shift were effected. The company said that energy provider Eskom had warned that the disruption could last up to four weeks. Gold prices reached record highs this month.

"The unprecedented unplanned power outages must now be treated as a national electricity emergency situation that has to be addressed with urgent, vigorous and coordinated actions," Public Enterprise Minister Alec Erwin told journalists.

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http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gTHN_vauNckr0PiXhNLvow2sEooQD8UCT48G2