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/ 17 January 2008
Power cuts are set to continue on Thursday, the Tshwane municipality said. ”Once again, load-shedding is due to Eskom generation constraints,” said municipal spokesperson Console Tleane. He said there was a slim chance that load-shedding would not be as ”intense” on Friday.
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/ 16 January 2008
The Public Protector is considering investigating Eskom’s power failures, which have recently left many parts of South Africa without electricity for hours at a time due to load-shedding. Lawrence Mushwana asks several difficult questions in a letter sent to Eskom chief executive Jacob Maroga on Wednesday.
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/ 14 January 2008
Eskom has asked two international nuclear giants to submit bids to build South Africa’s next nuclear power station, a media report said on Monday. The new plant, twice as powerful as Koeberg, would be the first of five or six more nuclear plants that Eskom is planning to help solve the country’s energy shortage.
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/ 10 January 2008
Load shedding resumed nationally on Thursday morning due to technical problems at power stations, said Eskom. ”Load shedding will continue throughout the day and the risk remains high for the rest of the week, but should ease at the weekend,” said the company in a statement.
Routine maintenance at Koeberg Power station was ”a necessary evil” at a time when reserve supplies were low and the risk of load shedding high, Eskom said on Tuesday. ”For five to seven years the reserve margin is going to be low. It’s an agonising decision sometimes, but we have to take a long-term view,” said Eskom spokesperson Andrew Etzinger.
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/ 25 November 2007
Mozambique will finally take control this week of the biggest dam in sub-Saharan Africa, which had remained in Portuguese hands for more than three decades after the former colonial power’s departure. ”We are finally going to be able to use the dam to satisfy the energy needs of our country,” said President Armando Guebuza.
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/ 21 November 2007
In the run-up to the World Cup preliminary draw in Durban on Sunday, fresh questions are being raised over South Africa’s preparedness to host the world’s second-largest sporting event in 932 days. Once again the spotlight is on the 10 World Cup stadiums after strikes by thousands of workers.
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/ 17 November 2007
Stormy weather wrought havoc at OR Tambo International airport on Friday, delaying flights and inconveniencing passengers, the Airports Company of South Africa said on Saturday. The storm also knocked out electricity out in several areas of Johannesburg.
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/ 15 November 2007
The City of Cape Town says it has asked for a top-level meeting with Eskom over power cuts and their threat to new investments. The request comes in the wake of an announcement by the utility that South Africa faces another five to seven years of electricity failures. Load shedding was to continue around the country on Thursday evening, Eskom said.
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/ 15 November 2007
Picture it: Johannesburg, 2010. It’s the final of the World Cup, and Bafana Bafana are playing England. Soccer City is brightly lit.
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/ 14 November 2007
Load shedding was stopped temporarily on Wednesday afternoon but was likely to restart towards evening, said Eskom. A number of Eskom’s power station units were still on unplanned outages and were having equipment repaired. An Eskom spokesperson said load shedding could continue for the next five to seven years. ”Demand and supply are very tight.”
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/ 14 November 2007
Hitachi and Alstom have been awarded the R20-billion boiler and the R13-billion turbine contracts respectively for Eskom’s Medupi power station at Lephalale in the Limpopo Province. ”Medupi will be the biggest dry-cooled power station in the world,” said Brian Dames, managing director of Eskom’s Enterprises Division.
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/ 10 November 2007
Eskom is looking at the possibility of increasing electricity tariffs by 18%, South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) news reported on Friday. Eskom said the cost of building power stations — at R1,13-trillion over the next 20 years — and the rise in coal prices are to blame for the possible increase.
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/ 1 November 2007
A <i>Mail & Guardian Online</i> reader, Simon van Gend from Cape Town, ran into trouble with his geyser last week after he followed national electricity supplier Eskom’s advice to switch his geyser off each day, to help save electricity and prevent load shedding. But is Eskom really at fault?
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/ 28 October 2007
As South Africa’s economic growth slows and inflation heats up, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel will present a medium-term budget on Tuesday with decidedly less to smile about than six months ago. While analysts expect Manuel to be more cautious in his revenue predictions, they believe past prudence has left him with enough room for manoeuvre.
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/ 19 October 2007
Eskom has issued a warning that there will be a high probability of load shedding Friday morning. This was due to a shortage of generating capacity Eskom was experiencing at present, the parastatal said. However, the situation was expected to improve by midday.
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/ 18 October 2007
Earlier this year, Cape Town was debating a by-law that would make solar water heating compulsory for relatively costly new buildings, and certain renovations. But what of solar water heating for less expensive structures — especially homes being built under the country’s extensive low-cost housing programme?
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/ 17 October 2007
The cost of broadband internet access is set to drop significantly with the adoption in the National Assembly on Wednesday of the Broadband Infraco Bill. The Bill provides mainly for transferring Broadband Infraco to the state from Eskom Holdings. Broadband costs in South Africa are considerably higher than the country’s international counterparts.
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/ 16 October 2007
Legislation paving the way for much cheaper broadband internet access is likely to be approved in the National Assembly on Wednesday. According to a memorandum attached to the Broadband Infraco Bill, the high broadband costs in South Africa compared to international counterparts have been investigated.
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/ 12 October 2007
Energy levels were stabilising and no more load shedding was expected to be performed over the weekend, Eskom said on Friday. Eskom spokesperson Fani Zulu said there had been no load shedding so far on Friday as the demand for power had been reduced.
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/ 11 October 2007
Positive public response to conserving electricity resulted in no load shedding by Eskom since early on Thursday morning. Eskom officials said if the public continued to intensify their efforts in saving electricity, there may be no load shedding throughout the day.
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/ 10 October 2007
Eskom has been caught napping again and has caused massive disruption to the public and the economy, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday. ”Eskom has informed the public too late about load shedding and has caused massive disruptions,” said DA spokesperson on Minerals and Energy Affairs, Hendrik Schmidt.
A number of electricity substations were to be switched off in Pretoria on Tuesday to assist in load shedding to alleviate a power shortage experienced during the rainy weather, the City of Tshwane said. The substations in the city were be disconnected from 3pm to 5pm, and from 5pm to 7pm.
Growth in demand for credit by South Africa’s private sector slowed slightly in August but money supply quickened, leaving the door open for higher interest rates. Central bank data on Monday showed credit demand growth eased to 22,91% year-on-year from 23,13% in July, above forecasts.
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/ 7 September 2007
The three venues for the Twenty20 World Championship — Wanderers, Kingsmead and Newlands — have all decided to use generators as the preferred source of energy to light the games. And this has raised questions about Eskom’s and local municipalities’ ability to handle the much bigger event, the Soccer World Cup, in about 1Â 000 days.
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/ 5 September 2007
South Africa’s largely coal-driven power utility Eskom has hit the limits of its capacity and aims to double output by 2025, with nuclear plants supplying more than a quarter of future energy compared with 6% now. Eskom’s chief executive Jacob Maroga told a coal conference on Tuesday the state-owned firm would cut back on polluting coal-fired plants.
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/ 2 September 2007
A string of gloomy data has clouded some of the optimism surrounding the South African economy, raising fears of another interest-rate hike and casting doubt on government growth forecasts. Figures released on Tuesday showed that growth had slowed by 0,2 percentage points to 4,5% in the second quarter of 2007.
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/ 15 September 1989
Eskom takes Eddie Koch on a tour to prove that Koeberg os perfectly safe …