Load shedding strikes Joburg, electricity users are assured that the country's energy challenges are receiving priority at the highest level to resolve the situation. Picture: Itumeleng English/ANA
Rustenburg – Eskom has announced that Stage 5 load shedding would continue until Saturday morning.
The power utility said Stage 5 load shedding blackouts would continue to be implemented until Saturday.
Earlier this week, Eskom said it hoped it would be able to lower load shedding levels by Thursday, but this has not come to fruition.
Eskom said it would release details around its decision to keep load shedding on Stage 5 in a media statement expected to be released on Friday afternoon.
The statement is also expected to shed light on how much power South Africans can expect to get from the power utility for the rest of the weekend and for the next week.
This week, Eskom said stage 5 would continue with a possibility of reducing it to a lower stage by Thursday.
Load shedding dropped to Stage 5 on Monday, from Stage 6.
Stage 6 of load shedding was implemented on Sunday, following the tripping of generation units each at Kusile and Kriel power stations.
Stage 5 means 5000 megawatts would be cut from the national grid in a staggered bid to prevent complete grid collapse.
Meanwhile, President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was expected to partake at the UN General Assembly this week, decided to return to South Africa on Monday after attending the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
Ramaphosa participated in a virtual Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, where the load shedding issue was one of the meeting agendas.
In a statement, Cabinet said: “Cabinet also discussed the problem of load-shedding that has over the past week disrupted the economic activities of businesses and inconvenienced households in the country.
“Cabinet expressed regret that intermittent load-shedding is happening at the time when government is vigorously engaged with the interventions announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in July 2022 to overcome the surmountable energy crisis facing the country”.
It said Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan
presented a briefing on the capacity of Eskom and a progress report from the Technical Committee of the National Energy Crisis Committee.
“Cabinet is still deliberating on these reports and following further interventions announcements will be made”.
The Cabinet, which includes the president, deputy president and ministers, said they remained committed to resolving the energy security issue in the country.
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