What Happened South Africa's inability to produce power will continue to wreak havoc on its economic growth for at least the next two to three years, negatively impacting its ability to escape its current economic malaise. South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CISR) recently released data showing that the country lost anywhere from $4 billion to $8 billion due to productivity losses amid countless power cuts over the course of 2019, Fin24 reported Jan. 22. CISR also said it found that the average South African dealt with roughly 530 hours of power cuts and that the situation was unlikely to improve in the next two to three years given the electrical grid's deep problems, as well as the time it will take to get new power generation plants online and resolve other issues.