South Africans will have to endure stage 6 load-shedding for a while longer with Eskom saying they will reassess the situation by tonight. A large number of units that tripped as well as units that were taken offline for maintenance caused the blackouts with government saying they are not going to ease on their recovery plan which is executed with ‘controlled aggression’

In a joint media briefing, Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramakgopa apologised for load-shedding and the intensity it is currently in. He denied that the blackouts were because of sabotage and said they were able to isolate and identify the issues as technical failures.

This after several units tripped at Majuba Power Station, later also causing a unit trip at Medupi and leading to the announcement of stage 3 yesterday at 17:30.

Further unit trips at Camden just after 01:00 forced the ramping up of load-shedding to stage 6.

Stage 6 power cuts see some areas having no electricity for four hours at a time, with four hours’ electricity supply before the next four-hour-long blackout.

Ramakgopa said their generation recovery plan is on track and that it is a matter of ‘short term pain for long term gain’ with the hopes to eventually never have to deal with load-shedding again.

Group Chief Executive at Eskom Dan Marokane said they will look at how many reserves were recovered and what units have successfully been returned to the grid at 20:00 before deciding about load-shedding stages and for how long power cuts will continue.

Of the 10 units lost, six have already been returned said Marokane. He anticipates that load-shedding will be suspended by the end of the week.

Eskom Chairman Mteta Nyati echoed Ramakgopa’s apology saying when the new Eskom board was appointed in September 2022, they knew it was going to be an uphill battle but that they are confident that they will overcome Eskom’s challenges.

Nyati said they are learning as they go.