Eskom ramps up load shedding to stage 4 and 3

Eskom has announced that stage 4 load shedding will continue to be implemented from 4pm until 5am while stage 3 rolling blackouts will be implemented from 5am to 4pm daily until further notice

The announcement comes after the ailing parastatal on Friday said load shedding will be implemented at stages 3 and 2 during the weekend.

Breakdowns

Spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said there had been some breakdown of power stations.

“A further update will be published as soon as any significant changes occur. Over the past 24 hours two generating units at Arnot and one at Kendal power stations suffered breakdowns and were taken offline for repairs.”

“The return to service of a generating unit each at Lethabo and Hendrina power stations were delayed. A generating unit each at Grootvlei and Kriel power stations were returned to service during the period,” Mantshantsha said.

Mantshantsha added that breakdowns currently amount to 16 920MW of generating capacity while 5 759MW of generating capacity is out of service for planned maintenance.

ALSO READ: Electricity minister needs to be ‘very special’, De Ruyter touted as ‘good candidate’

National state of disaster

The deliberate power cuts has raised concerns and taken precedence in the country pushing President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare the Eskom crisis a national state of disaster with immediate effect during the State of the Nation Address on Thursday night.

“The state of disaster will enable us to provide practical measures that we need to take to support businesses in the food production, storage and retail supply chain, including for the rollout of generators, solar panels and uninterrupted power supply,” Ramaphosa said.

Electricity Minister

The president also said he will appoint a minister of electricity in the Presidency and the minister will focus full-time on working with Eskom to end load shedding.

North West political analyst Professor Andre Duvenhage told The Citizen, outgoing Eskom CEO André de Ruyter and current COO Jan Oberholzer would be good candidates to take up the position of minister of electricity to deal with the current Eskom energy crisis.

However, Duvenhage said the new electricity minister is likely to be a political appointee or cadre deployee.

André de Ruyter for the job?

“If you ask me who are the better candidates for doing this job, I would go the way of André de Ruyter and Jan Oberholzer.”

“The government announced a disaster situation which they will use and misuse to fight an election. This allows them the opportunity to channel funds and resources to their constituency like they did during the Covid disaster times.

Political appointee

“And therefore, they need a political head and not a functional head. This was very much a political decision to give powers to politicians without the necessary oversight from the side of parliament. … Some polls are showing the support base of the ANC has dropped to 37% and they need to buy over the votes. I think that is the core of the strategy,” Duvenhage said.

ALSO READ: Eskom mum on new electricity minister to resolve load shedding