Some teachers and learners have raised concerns that Eskom’s blackouts will negatively affect the results of this year’s matric exams. Learners are currently writing exams.
This as Eskom plunges the country into darkness with stage four load-shedding which will continue until Friday. Thereafter Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented until 05:00 on Saturday morning.
Businesses have been seriously affected with the Black Business Council describing Eskom management as completely overwhelmed.
It has since called for the power utility’s CEO Andre de Ruyter and the Board to step down and for an urgent meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan to discuss the Eskom crisis.
Matric learners who are already dealing with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on education say the power outages are worsening their situation.
“I use my phone’s flashlight because the battery of my phone lasts at least two hours. It has been hard. Load shedding is really affecting us students and it is likely to hamper us from getting our best marks. I guess our marks are gonna be a little bit off. I have to come back from school at night to face all the criminals since we are living in the township. So, yeah load shedding has been very, very bad for us,” say some learners.
SABC News’ Jayed Paulse speaks to learners at Zwelethu Secondary School in Umlazi south of Durban:
Eskom says the blackouts are due to the ongoing generation capacity shortages. Spokesperson Sikhonathi Mantshantsha says the escalation of load shedding is necessary to ration the remaining emergency generation reserves, which were extensively used on Monday.
“It was anticipated that an additional seven units would have returned to service by Monday, and this has not materialised. Further, a generating unit at Arnot Power Station tripped this morning, contributing to the shortages. Eskom would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused by the implementation of load shedding and requests the public to reduce the usage of electricity in order to help us through the constraints. Eskom will communicate promptly should there be any significant changes to the power system,” says Mantshantsha.
Rolling Blackouts | Electricity crisis continues to threaten South Africa’s economy
