The power outage in South Africa has pushed the price of gold to record highs [EPA]

The energy crisis, which analysts fear could severely damage the economy, has prompted opposition parties to threaten to bring a motion of no confidence against Thabo Mbeki, the country's president.
 
"Prepare yourself for four weeks of hell" the headline in one South African newspaper read on Wednesday.

Eskom, the country's largest electricity producer, is cutting electrictiy supplies by 4,000 megawatts for four weeks in an attempt to stabilise the power grid.

The oppostion says the government has been receiving warnings about an imminent power crisis for almost a decade but has failed to prevent it.

Gold production hit

South Africa is the world's second biggest producer of gold, and most of the country's mines ground to a halt amid electricity rationing last Friday.

The situation has driven up the price of gold and economists have warned that it could ultimately slow down the entire economy.

Some analysts say that the cuts could slash South Africa's growth to below 3 per cent this year, the lowest level in 14 years.

Mining firms resumed production on Tuesday as state power utility Eskom pledged to restore 90 per cent of their electricity within days.

Alan Fine, a spokesman for AngloGold, said production had already resumed at Mponeng mine, near Carletonville, and the majority would be up and running by the end of the week.

"The rate at which we are going to ramp up production is very difficult to predict but we hope to be up to about 60 per cent by the end of the week," he said.

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