By Umamah Bakharia

Eskom is on the brink of collapse and has been on the decline for years. The country’s electricity infrastructure has been degrading in the past decade with scheduled and unscheduled power outages on the increase.

Last year, SA experienced a-thousand-113 hours of planned power cuts last year – the highest ever.

Speaking to Radio Islam, Professor of Physics at the University of Johannesburg, Hartmut Winkler, says South Africa’s efforts to tackle its energy crisis lack urgency and coherence.

“According to [an energy] plan, we were supposed to now in 2022, get a whole lot of solar and wind power stations online,” says Professor Winkler.

However, the plans are behind schedule because it was only approved last year.

“If we going at the current rate, we are not catching up that’s why there has been load-shedding,” says Professor Winkler.

Reacting to Ramaphosa’s State Of the Nation Address, Professor Winkler believes that the president has been taking measures to get rid of energy restrictions and make it easier for society to develop its own energy solutions.

He says: “there has always been one way to alleviate this electricity problem, [which is] if you allow individuals and corporations to produce their own power.”