Category: Africa

Eskom are still sweeping things under the rug: Energy expert Ted Blom has explained how load shedding is making electricity bills more expensive. It’s getting to the point now where we believe that, if you left Eskom in charge of a bonfire for 15 minutes, you’d come back to a flood. Their chaotic management of the […]

Eskom and government have started planning for Stage 5 and Stage 6 load shedding, according to officials who say that there is a race against time to ensure that a national blackout and grid collapse does not happen.  Stage 5 and Stage 6 load shedding imply shedding 5000 MW and 6000 MW respectively.  For businesses […]

Regional mapping is now capturing the true extent of small-scale irrigation more effectively, while research in Mozambique shows how accounting for multiple, small farmer-managed plots would nearly double the national estimate of total irrigated area. Ian Scoones, University of Sussex We often hear that irrigation in Africa is too limited, and that the key to a […]

If it’s not one thing, it’s the other. But for locals in Johannesburg, it’s both. Load shedding is now affecting the city’s water supply. Residents of Johannesburg have been told to prepare for a double-whammy of cuts the next time the lights go out: Load shedding is now having a direct impact on the water supply […]

The number of people killed in Cyclone Idai and recent flooding in Mozambique could rise to around 1,000, President Filipe Nyusi said on state broadcaster Radio Mozambique on Monday. Speaking to state Radio Mozambique, Nyusi said Monday that although the official death count is currently 84, he believes the toll will be more than 1,000. […]

Two boarding school pupils are among 31 people to have been killed in eastern Zimbabwe by Cyclone Idai. They were asleep in their dormitory when rocks swept down a mountain and knocked over a wall, officials say. A further three people are missing after a bus was washed away when the driver tried to cross […]

At least eight people were killed on Sunday in a raid by suspected extremists on an army camp in central Mali, military and security sources said, warning the toll could rise. Driving cars and motorbikes, the attackers stormed Dioura army camp in the Mopti region at dawn, leaving “many soldiers dead or missing”, a military […]

Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi have been hit by a vicious cyclone that has killed more than 140 people, left hundreds more missing and stranded tens of thousands who are cut off from roads and telephones in mainly poor, rural areas. U.N. and government officials report that Cyclone Idai has affected more than 1.5 million people […]