With the general election just around the corner, South Africans' top five concerns are the same as they have been for the last four years -- rolling blackouts, rising unemployment, crime and violence, corruption and the cost-of-living crisis.

The Kantar Mzansi Consumer Barometer 2024 shows that the outcome of this year's general election is a cause of concern for about 17% of respondents, with 12% worried about the possibility of crime and violence connected to the election.

Rolling blackouts

Rolling blackouts have topped the list of concerns for the last four years.

Stacy Saggers, the commercial growth director at Kantar, said she had stocked up on gas because she believed that as soon as the election was over, rolling blackouts would return.

According to The Outlier and the Eskom se Push app, by Monday, SA had had had 54 days without rolling blackouts. The last time the country had such a long period of uninterrupted electricity was between 5 December 2021 and 2 February 2022.

Last week, Eskom said its generation operational recovery plan was the reason for the improvement in the reliability of the generation fleet, with a focus on accelerating and executing planned maintenance, online preventative maintenance, major plant refurbishment and life extension projects. A total of 3,900MW of generating capacity was due to come back into service on Monday.

In an energy action plan update on Monday, Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said the energy...