Chimney collapses at Kusile power plant

South Africa’s newest coal-fired power plant, which has been under construction since 2008 and will cost an estimated R232 billion ($12.7 billion), shut one of its six generating units after a duct collapsed.

The unit at the Kusile plant could remain offline “for a few months” although a clearer estimate will be known over coming weeks, state-owned utility Eskom said in a statement late Wednesday. The outage comes as the country endures record blackouts — locally known as loadshedding.

The duct appeared to have sheared off from the unit’s main structure, a photo posted on Twitter by Anton Eberhard, a professor at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business, showed.

The government envisioned that the 4 800-megawatt, dry-cooled Kusile power station and the almost identical Medupi plant would showcase South Africa’s ability to construct massive infrastructure projects. Instead they’ve been dogged by cost overruns, defects, corruption and labour strife, and their completion has run years behind schedule.