The New York Times-20080126-South Africa- Gold and Diamond Mines Go Dark- -Brief-

Return to: The_New_York_Times-20080126

South Africa: Gold and Diamond Mines Go Dark; [Brief]

Full Text (106  words)

South Africa will ration electricity to ease the rolling blackouts that have brought two weeks of chaos and misery nationwide and are threatening the economy. Leading gold, diamond and platinum mines stopped production for lack of power, and gold and platinum prices hit a record high. The unprecedented, unplanned power outages must now be treated as a national electricity emergency, the minister for public enterprises, Alexander Erwin Jr., said, while the government issued an apology, saying it had failed to anticipate the pace of South Arica's growth and its new energy demands. The president has accepted that this government got its timing wrong, Mr. Erwin said.