Or is the rot here simply too deep . Its very depressing. Its very concerning. Our country is in a serious dark place. Stage 4 Load Shedding will continue to be implemented until further notice. It says that stage 6 will be implemented at 8pm tonight until 5am. How did it come to this . South africa, the continents great economic powerhouse, is in deep trouble. Long daily power cuts injohannesburg and across the country. Dawn, and the Traffic Lights are still not working. This is alexandra township, a poor neighbourhood on the edge ofjohannesburg. Every day here, the power goes out, sometimes for four hours, sometimes for eight or more. Officially, its called Load Shedding which sounds almost helpful, almost pleasant but the truth is that these power cuts are having a devastating impact in a country with a stagnant economy and soaring unemployment. And its particularly in poor neighbourhoods like this one that the effects are being felt the most. Suzeke mousa has run this bar for 25 years. We dont have money because of the power, because of the electricity. You can see now its dark. Are you going to survive in your business . I dont think so. The Power Shortage is taking the business out. It must be stressful. Very, very, very stressful. Very, very stressful. The Cash Transfer business next door is on the ropes, too. We sit more than sixi hours doing nothing. Its our salaries. If we dont work, i we dont get paid. Essentially, this economy has ground to a halt because we cannot provide factories, industry with electricity thats needed to produce. That has a direct impact on poor people who lose jobs, who cannot work, who cannot earn money. And poverty kills. Poverty leads to young people not getting the education they deserve and so forth and so forth. At that level, i think this is treason. Why treason . Well, thats what were going to try to find out. Were just heading out ofjohannesburg now and almost immediately, we are in coal country. You can see the coal fired Power Stations on the horizon and you can smell the coal, too. Now, in theory, this Huge Industry is supposed to be quietly transitioning to renewables to solar and wind. South africa has huge resources of both. But in practice, that transition is proving very difficult and very dangerous. Were heading to a town called emalahleni. The word itself means place of coal. If you want to understand south africas energy crisis, this is a good place to start. The town is surrounded by mines and by criminal gangs fighting for a slice of the Coal Industry. With us in the car, a local guide wary of being identified. So were coming just to the edge here of what is an illegal mine, an illegal coal mine . Yeah. Im just going to go around the corner here is that 0k . Were told there are at least 60 so called black sites in this region where coal is stolen or traded illegally. Whats extraordinary is quite how brazen it is. Its happening every day out in the open, in daylight. Even at night, we hear gunshots. Gunshots. Even they are fighting amongst themselves. The different gangs . Yes. We need to be careful, then. Yes. Because theres so much money at stake. Yes. That they will kill for it. Theyll do that. Lets see if we can try and talk to one of the Truck Drivers with the coal, once theyve left this area. Is it quite a dangerous business to be involved in . Yeah, sometimes it is because you dont know whether the mine is illegal or legal. And then, you take your truck to that mine only to find out that that mine is illegal. Localjournalists investigating the gangs run huge risks. It really is a brutal province for anybody who wants to expose the truth. A gangster kind of economy. Yeah, definitely. Life is cheap in this country. You can hire hit men for 10,000 rand thats m00. So, the system is, ithink, rotten to the core. And dangerous . Yeah, absolutely. But stolen coal is only part of a much bigger problem. Spread across this province are a dozen coal fired power plants. They look like ships that have run aground. Were now driving to one named tutuka. A huge plant. But today, its barely functioning, brought to its knees by years of mismanagement, looting and sabotage like this fire caught on camera at a nearby plant. The sort of scams that have been going on at Power Stations like this one range from pretty basic fraud for instance, inflating the price of Simple Protective Gear by up to 800 times to much more complex things like sabotage, so jamming key Pumping Stations and also putting rocks in the coal supply to damage the whole system and then, of course, you have to bring in new contractors to fix things with more inflated prices. Tutuka is such a lucrative target for criminal gangs that the last Plant Manager wore body armour to work. His successor is hoping he can manage without. So, youre happy about your security . 0k, look, i dont think. Yeah can we not go there . Its a serious question, though. I mean, your predecessor wore a bulletproofjacket because he was so concerned about the criminality here, but youre not. You think thats been resolved . Um. Im not worried. At this stage, theres nothing substantial for me to get worried. So, it is business. Im focusing on recovering the station. But the dangers here are real. Weve arranged to meet a businessman involved in the local Coal Industry. Hes now scared for his life after being threatened by criminals. Weve agreed to hide his identity for his own protection. It was very terrible because it was the first time someone pulls a gun on me. They held it to your head . Yeah, held it to my head. Told me i must do one, two, three. Did they threaten your family . They did. They told me they are not afraid of anybody. They are politically connected. So, theyre Above The Law . Basically. These political connections are crucial. Investigations by south african journalists have revealed alleged links between corruption in the Coal Industry and some of the countrys most powerful politicians. This leaked intelligence document claims to identify four criminal cartels, each with a network of henchmen and assassins, and links to senior Government Officials a sign here, to many, of the rot within the Governing Anc. The anc cannot solve this problem because the anc is as involved as everyone else in this problem. Its so deep in the rot, it doesnt know how to extricate itself, and any attempt to fix the problem exacerbates it. Can anyone stop the rot . In 2019, a businessman, andre de ruyter, was brought in to clean up the state power utility eskom. He was blunt about the challenges. So, the stays were cut, the tower was pushed over onto the other line but nothing was stolen, so this is not an economic crime. This was clearly now an act of sabotage and i think we can call it as such. But that outspokenness would soon get him in trouble. In fact, as well see in a moment, it would get him poisoned. The pressure to break south africas dependence on coal has been building for years and yet, south ofjohannesburg, machines the size of apartment blocks still scrape at the earth to expose more rich seams. South africa is addicted to coal. Right now, 85 of all the power consumed in this country comes from burning this stuff thats compared with less than 2 in somewhere like the uk which is why this relatively small economy is still one of the worlds great c02 emitters. And heres the impact. Machine whirrs. Eight year old princess matsebula has grown up in coal country. When she struggles with breathing, its very hard cos shell be quiet, she wont eat, she wont talk, she wont do anything. Official information about Pollution Levels here is curiously hard to get but leaked studies suggest this province is among the most polluted places on earth and that the Coal Industry is Killing Thousands of people every year. My wish is they have to cancel the coal so that we can breathe clean air. Do you think they will . They must. They must cancel the coal because it is killing us. This coal is killing us. These local campaigners say the government is putting jobs before health and ignoring court orders to enforce pollution standards. Its. Sobs. For me, i cant even explain the feeling inside. And its been long talking about this but it doesnt come up into terms where i can swallow it. Its painful. So, Nothing Changes . Nothing changes. But change might be coming. South africa is big and sunny. It has vast wind and solar potential. And western nations are now backing something called a Just Energy Transition an 8 billion plan to help wean south africa off coal. We have a vast, Abundant Energy source freely available to us, which is our wind and solar resources. Theyre amongst the best of anywhere in the world. So, we have some real least cost options in front of us. We could transition very rapidly onto a renewable dominant energy system. And speed is crucial because if south africa drags its feet on going green, its exports could soon be blacklisted by other countries. You know, im talking about the hard economic reality. If we dont decarbonise, were going to be shut out of the Global Trading system and were going to lose massive amounts of jobs. But the Just Energy Transition faces obstacles lots of them. Coal miners and their unions worry with good reason about their own jobs vanishing here in south africa. Many people will lose theirjob. Theyll lose their job if the coal was closed down, the coal mining stopped . Wed lose ourjob. And then, theres the politics. Plenty of seniorfigures here are sceptical, to put it mildly, about the very idea of abandoning coal. Youve been described as a coal fundamentalist, as a bit of a dinosaur, somebody whos obsessed with coal. Yes, they call me all sorts of things. � coal fundamentalist� and � fossil fuel dinosaur�. Do you recognise that . I take those as prestigious statements. It� s a compliment. Yeah. Those are prestigious titles for me. Do you believe the west, then, is treating you unfairly, that they� re pushing you to get rid of coal in a manner that just doesn� t work for south africa . Unfairness is an understatement. They are treating us as a guinea pig. They want to experiment with us. But then, what choice does south africa have but radical change when it can no longer keep the lights on . When south africa� s president , cyril ramaphosa, came to power in 2018, he promised to stop the rot. We are determined to build a society defined by decency and integrity that does not tolerate the plunder of public resources, nor the theft by corporate criminals of the hard earned savings of ordinary people. As part of that process, the president brought in a businessman Called Andre De Ruyter the tall white man he� s greeting here. His task to lead south africa� s Energy Transformation and to fix the mess at the power utility eskom. The rot was much worse than i anticipated when i took thejob. My rough estimate of the amount of money that gets stolen in eskom every month is in the region of a billion rand. Every month. A billion rand. That� s 50 million each month. To be fair, there have been some arrests. This man is an alleged saboteur, accused of damaging a local Power Station on behalf of a criminal gang. But these prosecutions are targeting the lower ranks. The cartel leaders, the politicians seem untouchable and still determined to block the transition away from coal. There are so many vested interests in the Coal Value Chain that the threat of decarbonisation, even though we� re talking about a multi decade move gradual, very gradual move away from coal why that is so. Eagerly opposed. The minister of Mineral Resources and energy, gwede mantashe, says that. Soon, seniorfigures within the Governing Anc started to attack de ruyter and his team at eskom. Eskom, by not attending to Load Shedding, is actively agitating for the overthrow of the state. That� s right. The Energy Minister was accusing de ruyter and his reform team of treason. One morning soon after that, de ruyter was in his office and asked an assistant for a cup of coffee. At first, the Coffee Machine was said to be broken and the eskom boss� s mug was briefly left beside it unattended. Minutes later, a full cup was taken to de ruyter. I detected nothing. And then about 15, 20 minutes after this cup of coffee, i started feeling extremely nauseous. And the theory is that it was a mixture of cyanide and sodium arsenite, which is a rat poison. He survived, but quit his job and fled the country. And this is where the poisoning happened in a supposedly secure executive suite. It� s an extraordinary thing for your ceo to be poisoned in the building. Yeah. So, that investigation is ongoing at the moment. We have been engaging with the authorities on that. Ongoing, but there have been no arrests. That� s pretty shocking, given what happened. But i guess it� s a process, hey . We� ll see. We� ll see or a whitewash. Laughs. I� m not going to comment. When you are going hard at the criminals and looking at, you know, eradicating all the evils within the organisation, it becomes a dangerous area. You� re still scared for your life . No, absolutely. Every day, i am. And the reaction from the Governing Party . Rather than supporting the poisoned ceo, many in the anc were openly hostile or, at best, sceptical. De ruyter, who was the head of eskom, the ceo. Yes. He was poisoned late last year, at the end of last year. I can� t give evidence to that. So, he might have been lying . I can� t give evidence to that. His doctors say he was poisoned. The tests show he was poisoned. I can� t. I can� t give evidence to that. Why can� t you acknowledge that . Did you call him up and see how he was . No, i can� t give evidence on things i don� t know. So, you don� t recognise this picture he� s portrayed of an anc using eskom as a Feeding Trough . No, i don� t. The looting he describes, it may be going on, but i� ve got no proof of it. It sounds like you� re deflecting responsibility for a terrible mess. No, i� m not deflecting. But the man who helped lead a long judicial inquiry into State Corruption here believes the situation is now worse than ever. One common theme that runs through all those assassinations and attempted assassinations is access to resources, access to State Resources in a way that criminals can easily benefit. Now, the poisoning of de ruyter is part, not an isolated instance, part of a whole pattern of conduct. Our country is in a serious, dark place. To which the optimists here reply, look around you. The move to Renewable Energy is happening anyway, regardless of the corruption, regardless of what south africa� s government does or doesn� t do. Unstoppable. I mean, i can confidently say the Energy Transition in this country is well under way. Not always by design, sometimes driven by crisis and ineptitude, but it� s happening at a pace and scale that from us in the Climate Commission we can say is a very positive development. But that optimism has to be set against the struggles south africa still faces the struggle against deep poverty and inequality, the struggle to clean up politics and to break the criminals� chokehold on the economy. I just think it� s getting worse. Just getting worse. If we dont do something about this, if there isnt the political will, then, yes, were talking about its a failed state because there is no solution in sight. Hello. August is just � round the corner. A few days ofjuly left. How about the weather . Well, this is the Jet Stream Pattern in the week ahead. It� s quite a strong jet stream. Very close to the uk. And you� ll notice generally to the south of the uk. And that means that, at times, cooler air will be spreading in from the north. It is quite a strong jet stream, which means that low pressures will be developing and coming our way quite potent lows, potentially. It� s also going to be a little cooler than average for the time of the year. In fact, if you look at this Temperature Anomaly Map whether it� s warmer than average compared to this time of the year you can see that the uk and, indeed, much of Western Europe in that light blue shade. So the temperatures will be lower. The outlook for the rest of the weekend is what we� ve been used to. Sunny spells and scattered showers, but also a spell of more persistent rain heading our way later on on sunday. Here� s the low pressure that brought the showers to scotland, Northern Ireland and, indeed, other parts of the uk. They have been most frequent here in the north west. This is what it looks like early in the morning. There will be some sunshine around. Probably not clear blue skies, but a decent amount of brightness. Showers will continue in the morning across parts of scotland, Northern Ireland and northern england. To the east, we� ll have that bright weather probably lasting for quite some time before the next air of low pressure comes in off the atlantic. You can see it spreading across ireland, the irish sea, wales and into the south west. Extensive cloud, low grey skies, drizzle, hill fog that sort of thing and at times heavier rain, which then pushes further towards the east. In the north, there� ll be some sunshine and the in, eventually, clear skies in the evening across parts of scotland or close. The first parts of monday indicate elongated low pressure with a lot of cloud, meaning it will take quite some time for this low pressure to move across. It� s not moving particularly quickly. That rain may hang around for some time across the north and to the south, a lot of cloud, occasional showers and, again, some sunshine. So, pretty much what we� ve had for quite some time now. Here is that low. It is rather large, isn� t it . It� s spreading across much of northern and central europe. Notice the wind arrows coming in from the north quite unstable air, which is also going to develop some showers once we get some heat from the sunshine. A showery day, maybe even some thunderstorms developing there too on tuesday. Here� s that large low even smaller lows running to the south of us. There� s thatjet stream again, pushing these weather fronts. Underneath that jet stream, low in the atmosphere, we� ve got that surface wind streaming all the way from the northern climes across the uk. It really will be quite a cool day for some of us, i think, on wednesday particularly in the north of the country. Again, quite a showery picture, though. Look at these values 15 in stornoway, 16 in aberdeen. Really barely anybody even making 20 degrees celsius, which is now statistically, by that stage, we are in the warmest time of the year. On thursday, these isobars pointing from north to south means further cool air arriving. But a brief ridge of High Pressure may pay us a visit, so there might be something a little bit dryer and brighter at some point in the week. Overall, it� s an unsettled picture. The temperatures will be below the average for the time of the year. And no change expected even beyond that. So, that� s how it� s staying for quite some time. Live from washington, this is bbc news. Kenya says its ready to send Police Officers to haiti in the midst of a criminal gang crisis. The eu suspends all Security Cooperation with niger after the country� s army took power in a coup. Thousands protest on the streets in israel, against the government� s controversialjudicial overhaul. Hello, i� m helena humphrey. Kenya says it� s ready to lead a multinationalforce in haiti where clashes between the police and criminal gangs have Displaced Tens Of Thousands of people. The country� s Foreign Minister says nairobi would deploy 1,000 Police Officers in the caribbean nation. The mission is subject to a mandate from the Un Security Council and formal authorisation from the kenyan authorities. Earlier this month, the un secretary general Antonio Guterres called for the creation of a Multinational Force for haiti. Speaking before kenya� s announcement, the us Secretary Of StateAnthony Blinken voiced concerns about the situation. We have very deep concern to the situation there, particularly with regard to violence and the activities of the goings. We are, as i think you know, the largest humanitarian donor to haiti, but we are also very