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Eskom is the state-owned utility for generating electricity in South Africa. The overwhelming bulk of its power generation comes from coal plants which were built over 50 years ago and are nearing the end of their lifespan. Eskom/the government has been slow to replace them, let alone expand the generation capacity to keep up with the population and industrialization. The reasons for this are many, ranging from corruption, to bureaucracy, to an aborted privatization attempt. If there is too much demand and not enough supply, then Eskom has to forcibly cut down on demand by load shedding. This means decreasing the load on the system by having rolling blackouts.
Other than the problem of old coal power plants (and deteriorating coal quality which makes them even more expensive) the electricity grid is outdated, too. There are thousands of MW of solar and wind projects waiting to be connected to the grid but they can’t be built because the present grid is not capable of letting more electricity in.
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