Esko switches off Swaziland's power

MBABANE – South Africans could sympathise when without warning load shedding hit Swaziland last Wednesday when, at Eskom’s behest, the lights went out all over the country. “The situation at Eskom where we get our electricity is very bad, so we also had to act after receiving a correspondence from them,” said Sifiso Dhlamini, public relations officer for Swaziland Electricity Company (SEC). Eskom provides at least two-thirds of Swaziland’s electricity needs, despite local attempts to generate power. Blackouts occurred immediately after Eskom communicated with SEC that it was unable to transmit the usual quota of electricity. Dhlamini said that Swaziland’s power outages would last two hours and be rotated throughout the country. However, parts of the commercial and transport hub Manzini and the Matsapha industrial estate were without power for longer periods of time. While domestic power generation expanded by 25.1%, hitting a record high of 346.6 GWh in 2013/14 compared to 277 GWh in 2012/13, SEC is only able to satisfy a third of the total electricity demand in the country. The rest is met through imports, predominantly from Eskom South Africa.