South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa says he is “quite angry” with the state-owned electricity firm Eskom over the rationing of power in the country for the first time since December.
The company said homes and businesses would experience power cuts, known as load-shedding, because of “continued pressure” on the national grid.
Power cuts, without warning, could last for about four hours at a time.
Mrl Ramaphosa said Eskom had reached the stage of “dysfunctionality”.
“Energy is really the important generator of economic growth in our country and we are addressing it,” he said.
Mr Ramaphosa also raised concern that many people were failing to pay for electricity, causing a revenue shortfall at Eskom.
“Many of our people are not paying for electricity, and users must know if we want electricity, and if we want Eskom to survive, we have got to pay for the electricity that we use, just like you pay for the airtime that you use for the cellphone,” he added.
