Eskom have refused to grant KwaDukuza municipality loadshedding relief this week, despite being among the hardest hit areas impacted by flooding.

eThekwini Metro however, is exempt from loadshedding.

KwaDukuza spokesperson Sipho Mkhize said their application had been turned down.

“Our applications were refused because we fall outside of the amount of energy that had be lost to considered.

“eThekwini were granted this because they have major substations that are offline due to being submerged in water.

“These offline substations supply just about 900MW which is usually shed during load shedding.

“This automatically serves as loadshedding for eThekwini.

“Loadshedding will continue for KwaDukuza municipality as per Eskom’s schedule which will be communicated with residents,” said Mkhize.

Last night the KZN floods were declared a provincial disaster by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta).

ALSO READ: Flooding in KZN declared a provincial disaster

iLembe Chamber of Commerce CEO, Cobus Oelofse said the Chamber had also made an appeal to the authorities to have both loadshedding and the toll fees lifted over this period, to no avail. 

Eskom had not responded for requests to comment at the time of publication.