Eskom extends stage five load shedding indefinitely

No one says Easter holidays are over louder than ailing state-owned entity Eskom.

The power utility announced that stage five load shedding will be implemented until further notice.
Eskom made the announcement on Wednesday, after a long weekend of minimal and suspended load shedding.
Interim spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said there has been an increase in demand.

“Due to higher than anticipated demand , Stage 5 load shedding continued from 5am until further notice. Eskom will provide an update later this afternoon.”

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Tshwane outage

Meanwhile, as Eskom imposes the higher stages of the deliberate power cuts,  Tshwane residents are waking up to another day with no power, following the collapse of at least seven pylons which plunged several areas into darkness.

 Residents in more than 25 areas have been in the dark for 72 hours after seven powerlines collapsed on Sunday, apparently owing to vandalism.

The incident led to the closure of the N4 freeway east between Solomon Mahlangu and Simon Vermooten on- and off-ramps.

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Vandalism

Tshwane MMC for utilities and regional operations, councillor Themba Fosi said human influence was the suspected cause of the collapse.

“Pylons can’t just collapse. They are stress-tested.”

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Tshwane lost 300MW of power in an instant on Sunday night. Speaking to The Citizen on condition of anonymity, Eskom and Tshwane electricity technicians said they felt the collapsed pylons were a deliberate act of sabotage, because “all these pylons were cut at the bottom with a grinder”.

“They were not cut today, yesterday or a few days back. They were cut a long time ago and whoever cut them made sure that they would all fall over with a little push from strong wind,” one of the technicians noted.

Additional reporting by Reitumetse Makwea

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