SOUTH Africans should brace themselves for another week of blackouts.
Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter has said during a media briefing on Monday, 11 July that stage 4 of load shedding is expected for most of the week and could move to stage 3 on Friday.
He said that stage 4 load shedding will continue from 5am to midnight every day until Thursday, while stage 2 will be implemented from midnight to 5am every day.
De Ruyter said this coming Friday, 15 July, load shedding may be downgraded to stage 3, which may be eased to stage 2 at the weekend.
He added that 12 units will return to service by Thursday this week.
“The system is unreliable and unpredictable at the moment, with a very high unplanned outage of 9 097MW.
“Due to the unlawful strike, we have suffered significant backlogs in maintenance, and we will therefore take a number of weeks to fully recover from the strike,” he said.
De Ruyter said there’s a renewed sense of urgency among government stakeholders to address the energy crisis.
He said Eskom has been busy in high-level government meetings over the weekend.
“This will hopefully accelerate solutions to bring more capacity to the grid. Eskom is trying it’s best to bring a speedy end to load shedding, but there are significant challenges,” he said.
De Ruyter appealed to South Africans to conserve electricity, especially at peak hours in the evening.
Eskom chief operating officer, Jan Oberholzer, said six stations were impacted by the unlawful strike.
He said no routine maintenance was performed at these stations during the strike.
“The Matla and Duvha stations will require time to recover, in particular, Koeberg Unit 2 has further been delayed and now only expected to return by the end of the month,” he said.
He added that Eskom’s intention is to lift load shedding in 10 days’ time, however, large risks remain due to the unpredictability and unreliability of the system.
It has been 73 days of load shedding since the beginning of the year.
De Ruyter said that an internal disciplinary process has been launched against workers who embarked on an unlawful strike and intimidated their colleagues.
He said some workers could also expect criminal charges.
“Eskom has video recordings of incidents, which are being submitted to the police,” De Ruyter said.
He welcomed plans, as detailed by the national police commissioner and President Cyril Ramaphosa, to establish a task force to address sabotage and criminal activity at the power utility.
Meanwhile, business owners are the most affected with blackouts. Aaron Nobela, who runs a salon at Riverside in Mamelodi, said the issue of electricity was giving him a huge headache because he has been losing clients for the past two weeks.
He said six hours of no electricity is a loss of money for him.
Another business owner, Antony Sithole, who is a tailor at Stoffel Park in Mamelodi East, said electricity was affecting his business negativity and they should fix it as soon as possible.
“I’m forced to take few customers because I struggle to deliver on time,” he said.
In his Monday newsletter, President Cyril Ramaphosa said after more than a decade of electricity shortages, South Africans are right to feel frustrated and angry.
He said at times like this, it can feel like there’s no end in sight.
“Yet, while load shedding appears to worsen, the reality is that we have already taken several important actions to address the shortfall in electricity supply. Our immediate priority is to stabilize the electricity system. As the system recovers and generation capacity is restored, Eskom will be able to reduce load shedding to lower stages,” said the president.
