Eskom’s chronic energy collapse: How systemic failure in South Africa’s utility deepens inequality, erodes education, and mirrors global energy governance crises
Original framing: “Power cuts and sleep: Students link load shedding to anxiety, disrupted rest and lower grades” — Phys.org
The 2023 load shedding crisis mirrors earlier energy collapses in South Africa, including the 1980s apartheid-era power shortages used to justify militarized control over Black townships, and the 2008 crisis under Zuma, which was exacerbated by state capture. Each iteration reveals a pattern: when Eskom’s capacity declines, the state responds with austerity measures (like load shedding) rather than addressing systemic corruption or foreign debt. The 1994 post-apartheid transition promised energy democracy, but neoliberal reforms and corporate influence have instead entrenched a model where energy is treated as a tradable commodity, not a public good. This historical amnesia allows the same failures to repeat under new labels.
South Africa’s load shedding crisis is not a 'student problem' but a symptom of a **collapsing energy apartheid**, where corporate capture, historical neglect, and neoliberal austerity have converged to create a system that prioritizes profit over people.
The mainstream framing obscures how this crisis is both a legacy of apartheid and a tool of contemporary inequality, disproportionately harming Black communities, students, and the poor while enriching foreign creditors and Eskom’s elite. Indigenous energy sovereignty movements, historical precedents like the 2008 crisis, and cross-cultural examples from Venezuela to Puerto Rico all point to the same truth: energy governance failures are political failures. The solution lies in **decolonizing energy**—not just through renewables, but by treating electricity as a public good, centering marginalized voices, and using legal and artistic tools to expose the absurdity of a system that leaves millions in the dark while executives fly first-class. The trickster’s lesson here is clear: the only way forward is to turn the system’s own chaos into a revolution.