Nationwide power failures shut down basic services across Zambia and Zimbabwe for hours on Saturday and Sunday as anger mounted in South Africa over power cuts that have wreaked havoc in the continent’s economic hub.
There was no immediate explanation for Saturday night’s blackout, which hit Zambia and neighbouring Zimbabwe almost simultaneously in the early evening, and it was unclear whether there was any connection.
Power was restored in Zambia about eight hours later, but long-suffering Zimbabweans remained without electricity, water, telephones and traffic signals for much of Sunday.
Power and water failures occur daily in Zimbabwe’s crumbling economy, but not on a national scale. Zimbabwe state radio, running on generators, reported the failure was caused by a major breakdown but did not elaborate. The state power utility gave no explanation as power returned in some areas on Sunday afternoon.
In one apartment district in central Harare, cheering erupted when the electricity came back on, replaced by jeering and catcalling when it went off again a few minutes later.
The failure shut down automated teller machines and cash registers at stores and pharmacies, forcing some to close their doors an hour after opening on Sunday. Check and local credit-card transactions could not be processed.
Harassed officials in Harare said a fault “tripped” the national power grid, plunging the entire country into darkness on Saturday night.
Unofficial reports in Zambia — which relies on hydroelectricity — said there appeared to be turbine problems at one of the country’s dams.
Both countries have been hit by exceptionally heavy seasonal rains, which is affecting equipment.
Power and water failures have worsened in Zimbabwe dramatically in recent weeks. The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority said earlier this month it had no hard currency for imported spare parts to repair equipment dating back up to 40 years.
Zimbabwe imports about 40% of its power from regional neighbours and is in arrears in hard currency for most of the imports. It is suffering chronic shortages of hard currency, local money, food, petrol and most basic goods.
South Africa, one of its main suppliers, is having its own acute problems with large parts of the country suffering power failures often lasting several hours. State utility company Eskom says demand is simply too high for it to keep up with, but there is mounting fury that the power cuts are unpredictable and causing unnecessary economic losses and personal misery.
Outraged commuters set fire to six trains near Pretoria on Friday evening after being delayed for two hours due to power outages.
Eskom has now been forced to slash power supplies to neighbouring countries in a desperate bid to meet local demand, Business Report said on Sunday.
The beleaguered utility, which generates 95% of its electricity for local use, exports surplus power to Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe — countries that will now no longer be fed from South Africa’s troubled grid, the report said.
Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland, which are also supplied by the parastatal, face partial cuts in their supply as the power company tries to alleviate the effect on South African consumers.
The opposition Democratic Alliance said on Sunday that Eskom should cancel supply contracts with its neighbours while its domestic market is in such turmoil.
“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,” it said.
Veteran Zimbabwean journalist Peta Thornycroft, who is now based in South Africa, expressed surprise that South Africans should be so upset about “only six power cuts in the last five or six days, and none longer than five hours”, compared with the eight years of disruption in Zimbabwe.
She had words of advice in the Sunday Independent newspaper for suffering South Africans, such as installing solar panels on the roof connected to a large car battery, buying paraffin fridges and switching to gas.
“Want to know how to cope in this time of gloom?” she said. “Ask a Zimbabwean.” — Sapa, Sapa-AP
Associated Press writers Clare Nullis in Cape Town, South Africa, and Joseph Schatz in Lusaka, Zambia, contributed to this article