Load shedding: Good news for Boks’ crucial Rugby World Cup game

No need for “generating gees” with Mzansi’s new tongue-in-cheek “load shedding anthem” as the Springboks face off against Tonga in their fourth and final Rugby World Cup pool match, in Marseille, on Sunday night.

This after Eskom’s announcement that it won’t be pulling the plug on the nation in what has almost become the norm on any given Sunday.

Load shedding suspended until Monday

The power utility will continue Saturday’s all-day suspension of load shedding throughout Sunday until 4pm on Monday when stage 2 will be implemented.

The good news follows “the return to service of unit 3 of Kusile Power Station, sustained improved generation performance and a lower-than-anticipated demand for electricity”.

ALSO READ: Eskom’s gameplan to keep the lights on during the holidays

Ramokgopa ‘really excited’ about Kusile revival

Earlier on Sunday, Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa enthused about the revival of Kusile in his weekly energy briefing update, saying he was “really excited” about “turning the corner” in South Africa’s load shedding crisis.

The under-fire minister confirmed that Kusile Unit 3 is already up and running – two months ahead of schedule.

It is currently generating about 550MW, with plans in place to ramp it up to its full capacity of 800MW.

Units 1, 2, and 5 are also on track for recommissioning in the coming months. This would maximise Kusile’s total output to 3 200MW.

ALSO READ: ‘Turning a corner’: Eskom to boost capacity with revived Kusile units

WATCH: SA’s new ‘generator anthem’

And because we are “really excited” about our electricity minister being “really excited” about “turning the corner” in South Africa’s load shedding crisis, let’s take a last “local is lekker” look at King Price Insurance’s viral advert of the “generator anthem” ahead of the Boks game.

Load shedding schedules for SA metros

The schedules of major metros are available here:

• City of Johannesburg
• City of Ekurhuleni 
• City of Tshwane 
• City of Cape Town (PDF)
• Nelson Mandela Bay
• eThekwini
• Manguang
• Buffalo City

For access to other load shedding schedules, Eskom has made them available on loadshedding.eskom.co.za.

• Additional reporting by Cheryl Kahla