As pressure mounted on South Africa's electricity provider to stop crippling and unpredictable blackouts that cause daily misery, the environment minister said on Friday the era of cheap coal-based energy must end.
Fears for economic growth and investment must be set against the risks to future survival posed by climate change on the continent least equipped to cope, said Marthinus van Schalkwyk, outlining the dilemma faced by many developing countries.
"In Africa, people simply try to survive, but more and more people realize that climate change is an issue of survival," he said.
Peasant farmers are already feeling the squeeze, he said.
The western part of South Africa faces increasing drought and declining crop yields, according to climate projections, while the eastern part risks more torrential rain and flood-related devastation.
South Africa has the cheapest "dirty, coal-fired energy" in the world, at R0.12 (US$0.02) per kilowatt/hour, compared with wind-powered energy at R0.46 and solar energy at R0.57, the minister said. Even in sunny, windy Cape Town, renewable energy is in its infancy.
An experimental wind farm has been set up on the coast and city authorities have tested solar powered traffic lights in a bid to reduce traffic snarls and accidents caused when the lights go off during power outages.
Cape Town has been spared the worst of the daily power cuts gripping many other parts of South Africa. The economic heartland of Gauteng, which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria, have been particularly badly hit.
South Africa's Human Rights Commission added its voice on Friday to the mounting protests against Eskom, the electricity provider. It said it would join with the Public Protector -- a consumer ombudsman -- and investigate why Eskom had introduced sweeping power cuts, which have had such a devastating impact on the government's campaign to improve service delivery.
"It has become a serious national embarrassment and could have a major impact on economic growth and job creation," the main trade union movement Cosatu said.
Business Unity South Africa, which represents the corporate world, on Thursday said the power cuts were costing millions and had "no end in sight."
This had eroded local and international confidence in South Africa, the organization said.
It voiced special concern over Eskom's reported warnings that big business projects -- such as proposed mining projects and aluminum smelters, should be put on hold for at least five years.
"The implications of the scenario recommended by Eskom will reduce business confidence; discourage new investment and capital expansion programs negatively affecting growth," said the organization's chief executive, Jerry Vilakazi.
What has most upset South Africans is that the power cuts usually hit without warning. Even though Eskom publishes schedules of planned outages, critics say the company rarely sticks to them.
The Johannesburg newspaper, the Star, had a blackened front page on Friday with a candle in the mast head and a banner headline "Week Joburg Plunged into Dark Ages." It featured tales of electricity woes from across the city, including a story of a man undergoing a complicated operation on his carotid artery when the power failed and a woman held up at gunpoint when her electric gate wouldn't open.
There have been reports that South Africa's already rampant crime -- has surged in the past week as criminals take advantage of the blackouts.
Hardest hit are small businesses -- such as hairdressing salons which have sent clients to sit in the sun to let their hairstyles dry; pet shop owners whose exotic fish have died; meat and dairy stores which have had to dump their produce.
Radio talk shows have been buzzing with irate callers for weeks, and traffic snarls around Johannesburg, already bad, have become unbearable.
Eskom says the outages are not its fault, attributing it to a lack of government foresight and planning years ago.
The company is building new coal-fired power stations -- which should be ready by 2013 -- and bring obsolete ones back into service. It is also constructing a second nuclear powered station near Cape Town.
But van Schalkwyk warned the power company that the government would no longer turn a blind eye to poor environmental standards.
"They must not expect the same leniency with regard to environmental standards that applied in the past," he said.
"We cannot continue to simply rely on fossil fuels for energy generation," he said.
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