South African Electricity matter.....

How many of the World out there knows the crisis South Africa is in, and the current electricity situation here?
I would like to hear from other Countries what they think.
And SA was picked to host the 2010 World Cup Soccer?
Is this feasable?

the only think i know about their electrical grid crises,
is that all the major gold miners had to shut down operations
a week or so back, because the power supplyer cond not guarantee uninterrupted service..

Anglo Gold and Gold Fields shut dow mine shaft operations and could
only provide emergency water bilging so as to keep the mines from flooding...
there were NO people going into that dangerous situation no matter the
price of mined gold.

Since about Tuesday the 5th of February '08, the electric provider
has guaranteed uninterrupted powe to the mines...

i don't know if mining is on the 1st for service list, they're probably on a third tier of service, aftere police, hospitals, publc transportation and the like..

so, in answer, I have no idea of where S.Africa is in regard to their electric grid infrastucture and service, or controlled rolling blackouts.
But i did know that
SA is a major miner of coal, and the Chinese need coal to run 70% of their factories and are willing to pay $100. ton

I've heard of this.

Basically SA is growing so fast that the demand for electricity is outstripping the supply, so the power grids regularly black out for hours on end, without warning in random areas.

SA is trying to correct this with proposals for nuclear power, but reactors take years to build so for the next Soccer World Cup they are considering building a temporary diesel fuelled power station to supplement the grid (because its the fastest type of station to build), however the administration is slow reacting and the issue is fastest becoming a crisis.

I would like to post the following two links to Youtube, on a documentary that was made regarding the electricity shortage in South Africa. The REAL reason why Escom cannot supply sufficient electricity for consumers.

www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com...