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It will take several weeks to recover from recent strike: De Ruyter

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Eskom Chief Executive Officer, Andre De Ruyter, says it will take several weeks for the power utility to fully recover from the recent strike action.

Stage four rolling blackouts are currently being implemented until midnight.

Eskom has been implementing power cuts due to losses in generation capacity following the recent impact of labour unrest and maintenance backlogs.

De Ruyter was speaking during a media briefing.

“This is not the news you want to hear, you want to have an end to loadshedding sooner. Unfortunately, due to the unlawful strike, we have suffered significant backlogs in maintenance and we had to operate the plants under conditions that are less than ideal. We therefore, will take a number of weeks to fully recover from the strike. I can give you the assurance that our colleagues are working extraordinarily hard to recover from the effects of the strike.”

Eskom’s briefing on the challenges is facing after the recent employees’protest:

De Ruyter has outlined the schedule of rolling blackouts for the week.

“We have a shortfall in generation capacity. We have to maintain a reserve margin and as a consequence we have to impose loadshedding. The outlook for loadshedding is for today , we will continue until midnight with Stage 4. Then it will drop to Stage 2 until 5AM. Then on Tuesday Stage 4 from 5AM to midnight. The same pattern is or Wednesday and Thursday. If all our units return as planned, we intend to list loadshedding for the weekend to Stage 2 around the clock.”

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