We still haven’t reached January 13, when President Cyril Ramaphosa said load-shedding would resume for the year, and here we go again.

Eskom is quickly proving to be Ramaphosa’s biggest headache (and he will have plenty in 2020), and many fear that another bout of Stage Six load shedding is just around the corner.

Worse still, it could become a regular thing.

The World Bank has been watching this farce play out, and now it’s spoken. Moneyweb reports:

The World Bank is the first key institution to cut its economic growth forecast for South Africa to below 1% for 2020 due to electricity supply concerns.

It now expects the economy to expand by 0.9% this year, the Washington-based lender said Wednesday in its Global Economic Prospects report. That compares with an estimate of 1% in its Africa Pulse report released in October and is well below government forecasts.

Its outlook for Africa’s most-industrialised economy is “markedly weaker” because it sees electricity supply and infrastructure constraints inhibiting domestic growth with weaker global economic conditions weighing on export demand.

The effects of constant load shedding are so bad that Goldman Sachs has called Eskom the greatest threat to our country’s economy, which is quite something when you consider what else would have been in the running.

A graph, for those who prefer their terrible economic outlooks in picture form:

We’re now looking at the potential for a second recession in as many years, as load shedding wreaks havoc on the economy.

In order to offset some of the negativity (perhaps a futile effort) that has returned in light of going back to work and being plunged into darkness once more, you may want to read this.

[source:moneyweb]