A Week in the Dark Ages

On Monday morning, South Africa’s National Electricity Provider Eskom announced that annual revenues grew by R20 billion or 28 per cent and that profits more than doubled from R3.6 billion to R8.4 billion in the year ending March 2011.

On Monday afternoon, most of Pretoria and Sandton – Johannesburg’s economic hub – were left without electricity for hours.

On Tuesday, Greenpeace dumped five tons of coal outside Eskom’s head office to protest against Eskom continued investment in coal-fired power generation.

On Wednesday, Eskom announced that its (quote) “below average” executive pay bill increased from R8.8 million to R18.5 million.

On Thursday, Sandton was once again without power for most of the afternoon.

On Friday, electricity prices went up 25%.