Load shedding reduced slightly for Sunday

Eskom has announced that South Africans will be getting very slight reprieve from load shedding on Sunday morning.

The rolling blackouts will be reduced to stage 5 from 5am on Sunday.

Stage 6 announced earlier

Former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter on Monday said that stage 6 load shedding will be implemented until Wednesday. South Africans, however, have endured the higher stage of power cuts until Saturday.

The struggling power utility said this was due to breakdowns of generating units at the Arnot, Hendrina, Lethabo and Majuba, and Camden power stations.

It also said there were coal constraints at Lethabo. This was after coal could not be delivered due to heavy rains in the area.

ALSO READ: Brace yourself: Winter is coming, and so too stage 10 load shedding

Stage 8 load shedding?

It seems the load shedding situation was worse than Eskom was letting on, though.

Earlier in the week, Eskom seemed to have implemented stage 8 load shedding without informing the public.

According to a tweet on Tuesday evening from Eskom spokesperson, Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Eskom’s peak feedback showed that 7 045MW of load shedding had been implemented.

Technically, this equates to stage 8 power cuts.

Stage 8 is the highest level of load-shedding the country has yet experienced.

NOW READ: SA technically in stage 8 load shedding despite Eskom saying it’s stage 6