LOAD SHEDDING UPDATES: Don’t fret, Cyril is on the job!

Government took the opportunity to “reassure South Africans that President Cyril Ramaphosa is leading the response to the current energy crisis” on Friday morning, as Eskom briefed the country on the latest load shedding developments.

“Government understands the frustrations of people as they struggle to go about their daily lives,” said a government statement.

Furthermore, the challenges at Eskom are making it “difficult to conduct routine maintenance and other operational requirements, which has impacted the reliability of generation units”.

Now more than ever, government said it is vital to “work together to manage our consumption and use only what we really need”.

Don’t blame management, says De Ruyter

Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter provided a load shedding update on Friday morning, and believes that he and other senior management shouldn’t shoulder the blame for the current load shedding crisis.

The update follows after the power utility announced a downgrade on Friday morning – from Stage 4 to Stage 6, but don’t get your hopes up just yet.

Stage 6 will be implemented later today.

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Eskom said it had managed to replenish its emergency reserves and that the country had been moved to stage 4 power cuts.

This comes after South Africans had to endure stage 6 load shedding from Tuesday.

In a brief WhatsApp update on Friday morning, Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said there have been some recovery in the system.

“Overnight we have replenished our emergency reserves sufficiently to not require Stage 6 load shedding during the morning.

“However, Stage 6 Load shedding will be implemented from 16:00-22:00 so as not to deplete these reserves any further.”  

Additional reporting by Cheryl Kahla and Faizel Patel.

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