Johannesburg - South Africa is under growing pressure to cut its electricity exports to neighbouring countries to try to meet demand at home, where rolling blackouts are being described as a 'serious national embarrassment.'
'Regardless of our contractual obligations, there can simply be no reason for South Africa to supply Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique when there is such a desperate lack of reserve capacity in our domestic market,' a spokesman for the opposition Democratic Alliance said Sunday.
He was speaking after Jacob Maroga, head of national electricity utility Eskom told the Sunday Times the company had been forced to cut its exports when supply was very tight, without revealing by how much or the amounts it sells abroad.
Eskom is tightlipped about its export business, which has been repeatedly called into question as blackouts lasting several hours become par for the course in Africa's largest economy and a source of 'serious national embarrassment,' according to trade union confederation COSATU.
On Thursday, Solidarity trade union accused Eskom of exporting 3,000 MW, around 8 per cent of its maximum capacity and equivalent to the output of one power station. If kept for South Africans that could 'amply' cover local needs, the union said.
This week saw Eskom 'load-shedding' - its term for cutting power to some areas when supply is too tight - reach new peaks, sparking a public outcry.
Local newspapers carried photographs of women forced to let their new hairdos set in the sun as shopping malls across the country were plunged into darkness.
In hospitals surgeons scrambled to complete operations before the lights went out while the streets of Johannesburg and Pretoria were thrown into chaos after traffic lights in several districts went out.
As supermarkets and restaurants were forced to dump tons of spoiled food, and shipments were delayed through Durban harbour Business Unity South Africa estimated the losses to business in the 'millions of rands.'
The frustration peaked Friday with commuters in the Pretoria area setting fire to seven trains after some trains were ground to a halt during rush hour by the blackouts.
Faced with mounting public ire, Eskom has asked the government to put all major new industrial projects on ice until 2013, because there is not enough electricity to power them, including a 2.7-billion-dollar Rio Tinto Alcan aluminium smelter - one of the biggest foreign investments in South Africa to date.
The situation, 'if left unchecked threatens to fundamentally undermine South Africa's future growth prospects,' the Democratic Alliance warned.
South Africa's Human Rights Commission also weighed in, lamenting the 'negative effects of the deliberate power cuts on the enjoyment of human rights' and demanding that customers be notified beforehand.
Eskom's troubles stem from years of state under-funding, arising out of the government's plans to try to attract more private sector investors.
That plan failed and Eskom is now investing 300 billion rands (42 billion dollars) over the coming five years to build new power stations and refurbish old ones.
But with no major boost in capacity expected before 2013, the focus is turning to exports contracts and domestic consumption.
Eskom on Sunday said it was prepared to examine all options with government, including electricity rationing.
© 2008 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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