‘We were never at stage 8,’ says electricity minister as Joburg residents cry foul

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa on Sunday strenuously denied accusations from residents in certain areas of Johannesburg that the stages of load shedding over the last few days were higher than what Eskom indicated.

“We were never at stage 8,” said Ramokgopa.

Although, he said he “can’t deny” that residents of certain areas of Johannesburg experienced longer stages of load shedding than they should have.

‘City Power must clarify load shedding schedules’

The electricity minister instead laid the blame at City Power’s door.

“But remember, the responsibility [for load shedding] in the instance of Johannesburg, Eskom has handed it over to City Power,” he said.

He said City Power must clarify the differing load shedding schedules experienced in parts of Johannesburg.

He added that he’s sure Eskom will have a “conversation” with City Power to try resolve the issue.

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Several residents, including energy analyst Chris Yelland, took to X (formerly Twitter) over the weekend to complain about the number of hours they were left without electricity.

They said on Saturday they had between 10 and 11 hours of load shedding, which is more than what should be experienced during stage 6. Some then accused Eskom of quietly implementing stage 8 without notifying residents.  

Ramokgopa expects a better 2024

Ramokgopa said he expects electricity demand to dip in December as industries slow down and then close for the holidays. During this time, Eskom plans to ramp up maintenance while the demand is lower.

He also said two units at Kusile should come back online by the end of the year.

This left him optimistic that load shedding will drastically reduce in 2024 – even boldly predicting that there will be days where the power outages won’t be implemented.  

“We should be [seeing] significantly lower stages of load shedding and, at some point, there will be days that you will not have load shedding at all.”

“We’re really confident about that projection.”

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