The Congress of the People (COPE) has slammed Eskom’s latest round of nationwide load shedding. The power utility has announced that it will continue to implement Stage 2 load shedding on Saturday due to increased demand for electricity during cold spell.
Eskom says it also needs to compensate for an earlier breakdown of a number of its power units.
Stage 2 loadshedding to continue until 22:00, then resume at 09:00 tomorrow.@News24 @eNCA pic.twitter.com/q0TM5Yh5iX
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) July 10, 2020
In the video below, Eskom announces Stage 2 load shedding:
COPE National Spokesperson Dennis Bloem says the situation is unacceptable.
“Load shedding on its own is very damaging to the economy. Many workers have already lost their jobs because of the lockdown; now the country is faced with load shedding. The ANC government must take full responsibility for the collapse of Eskom. The country can’t afford load shedding at this critical time of COVID-19 where health facilities cannot operate without electricity.”
‘Another death blow’
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Friday said the Eskom’s return to load shedding is another death blow to the country’s hemorrhaging economy.
The DA says apart from the ANC’s economic lockdown, the economy now also have to weather the storm of rolling blackouts. It says businesses have just begun to pick up the pieces after the lockdown when they are being dealt yet another blow.
The power utility said it’s working tirelessly to remedy the situation.
“Eskom is working hard to return as many of these generation units to service. While five generation units were taken off the grid last night and this morning, a breakdown at the Matimba Power Station has today resulted in the need for load shedding,” Eskom Spokesperson, Sikhonathi Mantshantsha said.
