Eskom has announced that stage 4 load shedding will continue to be in place from 4pm to 5am, while stage 3 rolling blackouts will be in place from 5am to 4pm daily until further notice.
The announcement came after the ailing parastatal said on Friday that load shedding would take place in phases 3 and 2 over the weekend.
Damage
Spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said several power plants were damaged.
“Further updates will be published if there are any significant changes. In the past 24 hours, two generating units at Arnot and one at Kendal power station have suffered breakdowns and have been taken offline for repairs.
“The return to service of the generating units of each of the Lethabo and Hendrina power stations was delayed. The generating units of each of the Grootvlei and Kriel power stations returned to service during this period,” said Mantshantsha.
Mantshantsha added that the current damage is up to 16 920MW of generating capacity while 5 759MW of generating capacity cannot be used for planned maintenance.
Also read: Electricity minister must be ‘very specific’, De Ruyter called a ‘good candidate’
State of national disaster
The deliberate power cuts have caused concern and priority in the country prompting President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare the Eskom crisis a national state of emergency with immediate effect during his State of the Union Address on Thursday night.
“The state of disaster will allow us to provide practical measures to support businesses in food production, storage and retail supply chains, including to launch generators, solar panels and uninterrupted power supplies,” Ramaphosa said.
Minister of Electricity
The President also said that he will appoint an electricity minister in the Presidency and that the minister will focus full-time on working with Eskom to end load shedding.
North West political analyst Professor Andre Duvenhage told The WargaOutgoing Eskom CEO André de Ruyter and current COO Jan Oberholzer would be good candidates to take the position of electricity minister to deal with Eskom’s current energy crisis.
However, Duvenhage said that the new electricity minister will either be a political officer or a cadre deployee.
André de Ruyter for the job?
“If you ask who is the better candidate to do this job, I would choose André de Ruyter and Jan Oberholzer.”
“The government has declared a state of calamity that will be used and abused to fight the election. This provides an opportunity to channel funds and resources to the constituencies as they did during the Covid disaster.
Political appointment
“And that’s why they need a political head and not a functional head. It’s a political decision to give power to politicians without the necessary oversight from parliament. … Some polls show the support base of the ANC has dropped to 37% and they have to buy through votes. I thinking is the essence of strategy,” says Duvenhage.
Also read: Eskom’s wife becomes new electricity minister to tackle lost load