Towards Addressing Energy Crisis in South Africa: A Systematics Literature Review

Organizations need to embrace and sustain a sound culture of need-driven and effective maintenance to promote equipment availability and reliability. In this study a systematic literature review was conducted to investigate the root causes of the challenges faced by Eskom Rotek Industry (ERI); a subsidiary of Eskom established to support energy generation and distribution in South Africa. A total of 52 articles were reviewed which probed the causes of load shedding and its effect on the South African economy. The outcome of the review identified some of the causes of load shedding as to lack of engineering skills and other required expertise in ERI which sometimes led to ineffective maintenance. It is therefore recommended that ERI should focus on skill development such as upskilling of existing employees as well as human capacity development to meet with the current demand of operations and maintenance.