Eskom CEO, Andre De Ruyter, has outlined the reasons behind the loadshedding across the country – saying the securing of power reserves ahead of election day has been among the factors that necessitated the planned power cuts.
The Minister says the power utility is likely to downgrade loadshedding to Stage Two for the rest of the week.
No loadshedding is expected over the weekend and on Monday – when South Africans head to the polls for local government elections.
De Ruyter alongside Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan briefed the media virtually last night:
“One makes predictions and forecasts the stability of the system as we have seen with some humility and there is always a residual risk but part of the reason why we have loadshedding right now is in order for us to replenish our reserves, both from storage as well as our diesel reserves. But that is why we took the decision to implement loadshedding right now, it was made specifically with a view of securing supply and capacity during election day.”
Meanwhile, loadshedding is estimated to have cost the South African economy approximately R60 billion so far this year.
There have been 34 scheduled power cuts in South Africa since April.
Economists put the total cost to the economy at about 1% of gross domestic product (GDP).
