South Africa faces Stage 6 load shedding: Minister Ramokgopa issues apology

The Minister of Energy and Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa apologized to South Africans as the country faces Stage 6 load shedding.

Addressing the media on Sunday morning in Pretoria, Gauteng Ramokgopa said: "Please accept our sincerest apologies. With the greatest level of humility, I want to say to the country that we regret that there is a setback."

Eskom announced that Stage 6 load shedding would continue on Sunday due to multiple trips at Camden Power Station. The national power utility said Stage 6 would continue until further notice. 

He added that the ministry is guided by the Energy Action Plan that the president unveiled to the country in July of 2022.

"We suffered a setback on February 1, 2025, after over 300 days of consecutive supply of electricity and in uninterrupted fashion and again now. We are coming back to you while we have another bout of load shedding which has a greater intensity."

Ramakgopa went on to say that five generation units were lost at Majuba power station which is Eskom's second-largest power plant.

"This resulted in us initiating Stage 3 load shedding to allow us to replenish the reserves, to allow the team to understand what the root cause was at Majuba, and have an appreciation of how long it will take for us to return those units.

"At about 1.30 am at Camden, we lost four units, which is another outlier...The constellation of that resulted in us upping the levels of load shedding to Stage 6. We have been able to record some successes in return of the units," he said.

Ramakgopa rubbished claims of sabotage at the stations. "I have heard several queries regarding some underhand activities. I want to say to the rest of the country; that this is a technical issue. We must not find any reason to manufacture explanations of why we are at Stage 6. We are hoping to get back to normal by the end of the week. There is no sabotage."

He added that the ministry will work hard to do everything possible to curb load shedding because it also affects the country financially.

"On the agitation, anger, disappointment that the country is registering, we should not accept load shedding at any Stage...We have made decisions that are in the interest of the great...We understand the anger; we feel your pain; we can hear your cries. We will resolve this problem," Ramakgopa said.

IOL