Eskom has fallen behind demand in recent decades, causing disruptions.
Johannesburg has seen hundreds of protesters against South Africa’s record power cuts.
The protesters marched on the ANC offices in Africa’s most industrialized nation’s financial center on Wednesday.
The Democratic Alliance, the biggest opposition party, organized the event, thus most wore blue.
“Enough is enough,” “Power to the people,” and “Load shedding is killing jobs” were other signs.
As Eskom has struggled to meet demand and maintain its aging coal power infrastructure, load shedding has plagued South Africa for years.
Over the past year, outages have reached new heights. Several times a day, lights are out for approximately 12 hours.
Authorities expected 5,000 people to march in Johannesburg, a city of 5.5 million, with a robust police presence.
A few hundred ANC supporters counterdemonstrated at party headquarters.
Cape Town protests were planned nationwide.
Phones must be charged at particular times. “We have to cook at particular times,” 22-year-old student Marino Hughes told Agence France-Presse. “South Africans shouldn’t live this way.”
The outages have disrupted business and cost the nation hundreds of millions of dollars in missed output.
Lloyd Peltier, 40, a poultry entrepreneur, claimed load shedding forced him to close four shops and lay off 20 workers.
This week, an agriculture business group reported outages have prevented dairy farms from refrigerating milk.
Our fridges have bad food. What’s ANC doing?” asked school employee Mpana Hlasa, 35.
Many were outraged at the recent acceptance of a high electricity tariff rise that debt-laden Eskom, which generates over 90% of South Africa’s energy, argued would assist its finances.
“I already pay over 1,000 rand [$58] for energy each month and I don’t have any,” said unemployed Betty Lekgadimane, 44.
This week, President Cyril Ramaphosa said it was “understandable” that people were “fed up” with a crisis inflicting “havoc” on the country but warned it could not be fixed overnight.
The president told the ANC last week that the government would import electricity and increase renewable energy output.
