MBOMBELA – Steiltes residents were furious when they were left in the darkness once again on Tuesday night. They believed that theirs was the only suburb which again had to endure load-shedding, however, this power outage was due to another reason.
The lights went out at about 16:00 and the municipality confirmed the next day that it was due to lightning. They immediately summoned a contractor to attend to the problem and power was restored at about 22:00.
Eskom had to implement stage 2 load-shedding but announced late Wednesday afternoon that the chances of load-shedding during the weekend were slim. However, if, due to unforeseen circumstances as Eskom referred to it, load-shedding had to implemented, the following areas would be affected: Steiltes, Vintonia, Riverside Industrial, Valencia, Orchards, Nelsville, KaMagugu, Hoërskool Nelspruit, Water Works, CBD, Village SPAR, Crossing SUPERSPAR, Show Ground, Croc Valley area and Bateleur estates which falls under the Delta category.
Nelsriver, Riverside precint, Elawini, Drum Rock, Ridge Hill, Kiaat Hospital, Emnotweni Casino, Goverment Complex and the Grove Shopping Centre falls under the Nelsriver category. Rocky Drift, White River and White River Country Estates falls under the Rocky Drift Category. Burger Street, Touis Hill, Werksaam, Phumalani and Dip 108 falls under the Paarl Klip category.
Stage 1 requires the least amount of load-shedding. It will be implemented once for two hours in a two-day period. Stage 2 will double the frequency of stage 1 which means load-shedding will be scheduled every day, Monday to Saturday, between 05:00 and 21:30. Stage 3 will double the frequency of stage 2, as well as covering the overnight period from 21:30 to 05:30, not covered by the other two stages. This means load-shedding will be scheduled three times a day, midnight to midnight, Monday to Sunday. Eskom calls on consumers to switch off geysers, air conditioners, pool pumps and all non-essential appliances throughout the day to reduce electricity demand. Commercial customers, particularly shopping centres and office blocks, can make the biggest difference by switching off non-essential lights and not to leave office equipment such as photocopiers and computers in standby mode after hours.
