Eskom says there is a risk of load shedding next week because of unplanned breakdowns and increased demand for electricity as most South Africans return to work on Monday.
Eskom Deputy Spokesperson, Dikatso Mothae has confirmed that breakdowns had reached levels of above 9500 megawatts on Friday.
The country last experienced load shedding before the festive season, when the power utility implemented stage four and for the first time stage six load shedding.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who cut a state visit to Egypt short because of the electricity crisis, then said Eskom executives would work throughout the festive season to ensure that South Africans did not celebrate Christmas in the dark.
Mothae says: “We would need to change the unplanned breakdowns to below 9500 megawatts. Our unplanned breakdowns have been way above that and up until now, how we’ve been able to avoid load shedding is partly because there’s a low demand in electricity as a lot of industries and a lot of businesses closed over the festive season.”
“So what we can say is that there is a risk of load shedding given the high level of unplanned breakdowns that we’ve seen since the festive season started.”
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