(Reporting by Nellie Peyton, Bhargav Acharya and Tannur Anders;
Editing by Alexander Winning and Jon Boyle)
(Adds detail, context throughout)
JOHANNESBURG, May 11 (Reuters) - South African President
Cyril Ramaphosa denied on Thursday that his government had
failed over crippling power cuts, saying already-announced
interventions would reduce pressure on the grid.
Africa's most industrialised economy is experiencing the
worst electricity outages on record, meaning many households and
businesses are without power for more than 10 hours a day, as
state power utility Eskom's ailing fleet of coal power stations
repeatedly breaks down.
Experts expect the outages could get worse as South African
gets deeper into the southern hemisphere winter, despite
repeated pledges by Ramaphosa's government to increase energy
availability by fixing faulty coal stations and procuring new
generation capacity.
"We are not sleeping on the job," Ramaphosa told a
question-and-answer session with lawmakers.
He expressed a preference for South Africa bringing in
emergency energy, citing the example of other countries that had
brought in power ships.
South Africa's rand currency and bonds have been
under heavy selling pressure in recent days as investor
sentiment has soured badly over the power crisis.
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