The current energy crisis resulted in Eskom implementing stage 6 load-shedding over the weekend before easing the outages to stage 5 on Monday.

The energy crisis weakened the rand and saw shares trading on the JSE losing substantial value while ordinary citizens were not able to cook or venture out as the country was plunged into darkness.

While Ramaphosa, who was forced to cut his overseas trip short due to the energy crisis back home, assured the nation that a solution would be found, former president Thabo Mbeki said citizens needed to know why the crisis arose in the first place.

The power outages came about after breakdowns at several Eskom’s power stations, including at the new power stations such as Medupi — located west of Lephalale in Limpopo.

Mbeki said it was a major concern that even Eskom’s new power stations were constantly having problems. Problems at Eskom, Mbeki said, pointed to leadership challenges.

“Let’s put engineers and economists as the leadership of Eskom.”

The perennial power outages have resulted in the ANC in KZN calling for the axing of the power utility’s chief executive, Andre de Ruyter.

“The CEO should have been fired a long time ago. The president must fire this CEO so that we can get someone who knows Eskom,” ANC provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo said.