Social media wants Soweto’s power cut until they pay Eskom

By Kaunda Selisho

Residents of Soweto have had to defend their honour on social media all day after stage two load shedding was announced and later upgraded to stage four.

Earlier today, Eskom announced that the rotational load shedding it first notified South Africans of yesterday, and which they said this morning would take place from 9am until 10pm, has now moved from Stage 2 to Stage 4. This means 4,000MW will be shed, double what was initially expected.

The power utility says in a statement the reason behind this is that they have lost an additional six generating units since this morning “unexpectedly”.

Once regarded the severest form of load shedding, Stage 4 could mean blackouts with no warning and outside of the usual schedule.

The prospect of blackouts with no warning has left South Africans frustrated and many have opted to take this frustration out on Soweto.

Some took to Twitter to demand that the township, which owes the power utility billions of rands, be cut off until the debt is settled.