The president of South Africa Disputes that a Break in Power Outages is Related to an Election.

On Monday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa denied the opposition’s claim that the country’s long-running power outages were halted recently because of the May 29 election.

Eskom, the state utility, implemented rolling power cuts in 2023 and again in the first quarter of this year. Still, now there hasn’t been any load-shedding—as the South Africans refer to the power outages—for 48 days in a row—the longest stretch in more than two years.

According to data gathered by The Outlier, an independent South African publication specializing in public service data visualisations, there were power outages every day during the same 48-day period last year.

The opposition has accused the ruling African National Congress of manipulating the timing of the striking increase in power supply, which has become a talking point in South African media.

With opinion polls indicating that it is likely to lose its parliamentary majority for the first time since taking power 30 years ago at the end of apartheid, the ANC is facing its most difficult electoral test to date.