Blackouts costs universities R2m per day

JOHANNESBURG - South African universities are feeling the pinch of power cuts.

Universities South Africa says institutions are spending as much as R2-million a day to keep the lights on.

READ: SA's water crisis | Water department requests blackouts exemption

Blackouts have become an additional financial burden on universities.

Some are hoping to be exempted from power cuts.

READ: SA considers buying power from Tanzania

"Looking at the current situation, most of the funds are spent on diesel or petrol to power generators," said Phethiwe Matutu, Universities South Africa CEO.

"When we are talking about Stage 3 of load-shedding, small universities are spending between R1,233 per day to about R196,000 per day for bigger universities.

"When we have Stage 6 of load-shedding, the smallest university will spend about R2,600 per day and bigger university with many campuses will spend about R2.2 million per day."