Eskom areas experiencing morning and evening load reduction include communities across two main blocks.
On Friday, said its power system remains stable and continues to meet electricity demand.
South Africa has now experienced 234 consecutive days without a supply interruption, with only 26 hours of load shedding recorded in April and May last year.
“The Generation Recovery Plan is delivering clear results, and together with the intensive planned maintenance carried out over the past financial year, has strengthened the generation fleet, improved reliability and enhanced Eskom’s overall operational resilience,” said Eskom.
It said most areas hit by the December weather had been restored, and Eskom teams remain on the ground repairing outstanding distribution infrastructure.
While load shedding remains suspended, load reduction will continue throughout January 2026.
With illegal connections and electricity theft burdening the transformer load, Eskom wants to ease the pressure on its substations.
“The continued pressure on our transformers/mini-substations due to illegal connections and electricity theft in some areas necessitates load reduction to avoid equipment damage,” the utility said.
Affected areas
The affected areas in Cape Town will experience darkness for two hours. Outages will occur twice daily, from 5am to 7am and again from 5pm to 7pm.
Block A areas that will be affected between 5am-7am include:
- Philippi East
- Crossroads
- Klipfontein
- Mfuleni
Block B areas that will be affected between 5pm-7pm include:
- Philippi
- Crossroads
- Klipfontein
- Eersterivier
- Mfuleni
- Highgate(Silversands)
- Part of Airport industrial
- Khaya
- Mandela Park(Khayelitsha)
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To see if your area will experience load reduction, click on or download the document below:
Although the power system remains stable and generation capacity continues to exceed demand, adverse festive-season weather led to a sharp increase in faults across Eskom’s distribution network, with reported incidents up about 40% compared to the same period last year, the power utility said.
Additionally, illegal connections and meter tampering continue to damage infrastructure and pose serious safety risks. As a temporary measure, Eskom is maintaining load reduction in high-risk areas to protect communities and the network, it said.
“To address these challenges sustainably, Esom has initiated a phased programme to eliminate load reduction by 2027. The programme targets 971 feeders and will benefit approximately 1.69 million customers through intervention such as smart meters, Distributed Energy Resources and expanded Free Basic Electricity support.”
