For years South Africa has been plunged into rolling blackouts, and has since negatively impacted on a number of sectors.
Some institutions have opted for other alternatives, such as generators, to continue with their daily operations.
In a Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Innovation meeting, it was revealed more than 80% of South African public universities used generators as an alternative each time the country experienced stage 3, 4, 5 and 6 loadshedding. But not all of these institutions of higher learning provided data about how much they spend daily on diesel.
Higher Education Minister, Dr. Blade Nzimande said that the University of Pretoria spent R1 200 933.00 per day on diesel for its generators during these stages of loadshedding even though two of the university's campuses that are in close proximity to hospitals are not experiencing loadshedding.
This is an indication of how costly the daily power cuts have been in institutions and this has also resulted in some businesses also closing.
Mangosuthu University of Technology could not provide information on the cost of diesel under each of the different stages of load shedding but the institution spent R123 026 per month when generators are used during load shedding
On the other hand, the University of Zululand does not have many generators and does not have an astronomical diesel account for load shedding.
Nzimande shared that the reality is that there is a dire need of generators and a budget for diesel should loadshedding persist.
Former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter had mentioned that the country's rolling power cuts are here to stay for at least for the remainder of the year.
Hopefully, things will turn out for the best as an Electricity Minister has been appointed in the new cabinet to help resolve the energy crisis in South Africa.
