Big Brother Mzansi back on air after 14 hour blackout

Mzansi Magic has attributed the 14-hour transmission outage during Big Brother Mzansi to Eskom’s stage 6 load shedding.

The reality television show resumed airing on Sunday.

“Mzansi Magic is aware of the loss in transmission on the Big Brother Mzansi channel, channel 198.

“Due to Stage 6 load shedding, backup power generation was affected and the production team is working hard to get more backup generators for the show to resume transmission,” the channel said in a statement on Sunday.

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Power went off at midnight on Saturday just after the Big Brother party and was only restored at 11:45am the following day.

There was nothing on air for the duration of those hours.

“We would like to assure viewers that extra security measures have been put in place to ensure that housemates are safe and they remain under the watchful eye of Big Brother,” the statement further reads.

With Mzansi Magic having only communicated on Sunday, viewers were curious about what was happening during the blackout.

“Ahh guys come on, the channel has been down for over an hour, you guys need to take us serious, we are missing out buddy… Are you even trying to fix whatever the problem is?” wrote @niggas_in_prys on X.

The channel has been down for hours now and there is no statement of what’s truly happening. If it’s not being bias, it’s sleeping on the job. A lil respect for the viewers would slap.

— kgao🤍 (@kgaoVKR) February 11, 2024

Ahh guys come on, The channel has been down for over an hour, you guys need to take us serious, we are missing out buddy… Are you even trying to fix whatever the problem is?

— Yes I said it (@niggas_in_prys) February 10, 2024

Eskom woes

South Africa has experienced higher stages of load shedding since the State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Thursday.

In a media briefing on Sunday, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa blamed ramped-up Eskom’s maintenance for the devastating Stage 6 power cuts, promising lower load shedding stages next week.

The minister said about 4 400 megawatts were taken out due to boiler tube leaks days leading up to the 2024 Sona and also on Friday.

READ MORE: ‘What’s meant by embarrassment?’ – Ramokgopa defends Ramaphosa’s Sona remarks and load shedding ‘coincidence’

“Essentially we had nine units contributing the 400 400 and these are big units. Each one is contributing over 600 MW,” averred Ramokgopa.

 “Of these nine units, two have come back. We will see a significant reduction in load-shedding stages by Wednesday.” He added that Eskom management was working directly with boiler tube equipment manufacturers to deal with this, thus, “cutting off the middleman.”

Additional reporting by Getrude Makhafola