内容摘要：But Dr Brown argues there is also a hit to Australia’s reputation which is harder to quantify, pointing to Canada as a warning. It introduced a foreign student cap this year, but industry bodies there say enrolments have fallen well below that, because nervous students would rather apply to study somewhere with more certainty.

But Dr Brown argues there is also a hit to Australia’s reputation which is harder to quantify, pointing to Canada as a warning. It introduced a foreign student cap this year, but industry bodies there say enrolments have fallen well below that, because nervous students would rather apply to study somewhere with more certainty.

Load-shedding began in 2007, reaching a low last year with power cuts often lasting more than half a day.This year it was expected to get worse. But now there has been no load-shedding for more than four months - since 05:00 on 26 March to be precise - the longest break in more than four years.

How has the turnaround happened, and will power cuts return?It is largely because of a set of programmes from the state-owned power provider Eskom and the government over the last two years.In July 2022 President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the Energy Action Plan, and the following February he declared a national state of disaster over the electricity crisis.

Soon after he created the role of electricity minister, appointing Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.And then Eskom launched the two-year Generation Operational Recovery Plan, the key aim of which was to increase the amount of power - known as the “Energy Availability Factor” (EAF) - to 70% of the network’s potential.

At the same time Eskom overhauled its leadership, which most point to as a crucial factor.

For years the company had been beset by corruption under former President Jacob Zuma, known as "state capture", when it fell victim to acts of theft and sabotage. A former CEO even claimed to be have been poisoned.The contract in question stipulated that Enviro-Mobi should receive upfront payments and that money should only be handed to the company after a portion of its work was completed, police spokesperson Thandi Mbambo said.

However, the Hawks' investigation found that Gauteng's Department of Agriculture paid Enviro-Mobi 25 million rand for 200 vehicles, even though the goods were "still in the possession of the service provider".It is not the first time Mabe, who served as the ANC's spokesperson from 2018 to 2023, has been accused of corruption.

Along with two others, he was arrested in 2013 over allegations he had defrauded the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa). The trio were later cleared of all charges.And in 2017 Mabe was fined after a parliamentary committee found that he had benefited from a contract with the state-owned rail company.