Load shedding is job shedding - DA

Cape Town - Hard-working South Africans will continue to lose their jobs as long as the ANC denies that the country is in an electricity crisis, according to the Democratic Alliance.

"Load shedding is job shedding", said DA Parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane in a statement on Sunday.

He claimed that at least one million South Africans have lost their jobs since load shedding began in 2008, costing the economy R300bn to date.

Speaking at the ANC's 103rd birthday celebration in Cape town on Saturday, President Jacob Zuma said the ANC could not be blamed for the country's electricity woes, saying it was a legacy of apartheid.

"For President Jacob Zuma to say that the ANC must 'not feel guilty about the energy issue' because it is apartheid’s fault, is to deny the very reason why South Africa faces an electricity crisis today," said Maimane.

He said Zuma can no longer use the evil of apartheid to justify the government's failure to avoid the power crisis.

Maimane added that if Zuma and the ANC do not feel responsible for this crisis, then it proves that the ANC is incapable of effectively running the country.

"This is a crisis that is ANC-made," he said.

On Friday Eskom implemented stage one load shedding for the first time this year, following a series of scheduled outages in December.

Rolling blackouts could be more damaging this year to the already-struggling economy because the impact will be more widespread, warned Nedbank chief economist Dennis Dykes, reported AFP.

"This year it's a different situation. It's negatively affecting the retail sector, it's much more across the board and it's much more immediate," said Dykes.

Last year's outages cost companies millions in lost production and business and battered the economy, which was expected to grow by 1.4% in 2014. This year growth is forecast to rise to 2.5%.

"Unfortunately it certainly has the potential of hurting growth, anything between half a percent to one percent of GDP," said Dykes.