Eskom lowers load shedding to stage 4, but stage 6 is coming back

There may be some light following the load shedding in the country.

Eskom said it had managed to replenish its emergency reserves and that the country had been moved to stage 4 power cuts.

This comes after South Africans had to endure stage 6 load shedding from Tuesday.

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In a brief WhatsApp update on Friday morning, Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said there have been some recovery in the system.

“Overnight we have replenished our emergency reserves sufficiently to not require Stage 6 load shedding during the morning.

“However, Stage 6 Load shedding will be implemented from 16:00-22:00 so as not to deplete these reserves any further.”  

“Stage 4 is currently being implemented until 16:00,” Mantshanstha said.

The princes of darkness had intensified power cuts on Friday morning amid an ongoing wage strike with members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa).

South Africans will be waiting with bated breath to see whether the trade unions and Eskom will reach an agreement to solve the ongoing labour dispute.

Numsa initially demanded 15% across the board at the start of the wage battle but revised their demand downward to 12%.

NUM’s wage demands currently range between 8% and 10% while Solidarity, which condemned the protests, made a demand of 5.9%.

On Thursday, Numsa told The Citizen it has not rejected Eskom’s wage offer of a 7% wage increase yet, despite reports which suggest otherwise.

It said the report was false and misleading and does not represent the position of all unions.

“Numsa and NUM will be engaging Eskom in the Central Bargaining Forum on Friday 1 July regarding the proposal which Eskom has tabled,” said the unions in a joint statement.

Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan’s on Tuesday announced workers would return to work after disruptions to Eskom operations, with bargaining expected to resume on Friday.

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