South African power cuts worsen as Eskom extends worst-ever outages

A Muslim man reads the Quran in a mosque and uses a mobile phone as a light during one of frequent power outages, called load shedding, as South Africa's struggling power utility Eskom implements regular power cuts because of ageing coal-fired power stations, in Cape Town, South Africa, January 11, 2023. REUTERS/Esa Alexander

South African power cuts worsened on Wednesday as struggling state utility Eskom said it would extend its worst-ever outages until further notice.

The "Stage 6" power cuts mean six to eight hours a day without power for most South Africans and require up to 6,000 megawatts (MW) of capacity to be shed from the national grid.