I don’t believe we’ll reach stage 8 load shedding, says Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa says he does not see Eskom implementing stage 8 load shedding.

Ramaphosa assured South Africans during a presidential imbizo in Carolina, Mpumalanga, on Friday, and said although load shedding would continue, stage 8 was not possible.

“I don’t really believe that we’ll go up to stage 8. The management is doing everything they can to ensure they keep up with maintenance and it there are breakdowns, they are repaired quickly, so we’re still very hopeful that we have a management that got things under control,” said Ramaphosa.

“I think we will continue to have load shedding but it is going to be the type of load shedding that they will warn everybody about in advance as they try everything they can to keep the lights on and generation of electricity going on.”

Sabotage at Tutuka

Among the challenges being faced by the power utility is sabotage, Eskom said on Thursday after laying criminal charges against those it believes have been deliberately delaying the return of some units to service.

According to spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha on Thursday, a cable was severed at the Tutuka Power Station this week while the power station was finalising preparations to return Unit 5 to service.

“The damage to the cable had the effect of delaying the unit’s return to service by three days as it took some time to locate the fault. Once discovered, the cable was repaired in a short space of time. The return to service of Unit 5 was then resumed,” said Mantshantsha.

A few hours later, Eskom discovered that there was a station control air pressure drop and the same Unit 5 Turbine systems which consume control air for operation were de-energised.

“It was later discovered that the control air pipe supplying the Turbine systems had been cut with a power tool and the entire bend removed. Same was welded back on and the system charged with control air before being normalised,” he said.

Eskom said the acts of sabotage were done by someone who had access to the site where only employees have access and knows the security features in the area quite well.

Eskom has laid criminal charges with the South African Police Service (SAPS) and its forensic team is assisting with the investigation.

This is the fifth incident of sabotage since March 2021, and all of these have been reported to the police.

READ MORE: Eskom lays criminal charges after discovering sabotage incidents at Tutuka