It was going well for most of July until Eskom announced on Tuesday it will implement load shedding from 5pm.

The electricity giant in an official statement said, “Stage one load shedding will be implemented from 5pm which is likely to continue until 10pm.

This is due to increased electricity demand and a shortage of generation capacity resulting from technical faults at some of our power station units.

“Eskom would like to assure customers that load shedding is implemented as a necessary measure to protect the power system and to ensure that maintenance is carried out in order to guarantee that our supply of electricity can be maintained in the long term.

“Any unexpected changes on the vulnerable and constrained power system could lead to a change in the load shedding stage at short notice.

As we are currently experiencing cold weather conditions across the country, we urge electricity users to consider energy efficient ways of keeping warm.”

Eskom will use the published load shedding schedules which are available on the Eskom website for Eskom customers. Eskom customers can also contact our customer call centre 0860 037 566.

Municipal customers should contact their municipalities for information. It seems Randfontein will be affected by load shedding today only once stage 3 has been implemented.

• Areas in 6B namely WESTERGLOOR, TOEKOMSRUS, FINSBURY, KOCKSOORD, PEACE HAVEN, TEN ACERS, MIDDELVLEI, PELZVALE, RANDFONTEIN SOUTH, AUREUS 3 will be powerless between 10pm (today) and 2.30am the next day.

• Areas in 6A namely ROBINPARK, ROBINSON HOSPITAL,LENMED HOSPITAL, PART OF GREENHILLS,PART OF HOMELAKE, BONGWENI VILLAGE, AZAADVILLE, RANDONTEIN GOLF CLUB, RANDFONTEIN CENTRAL FROM HECTORTON TO 6TH STREET will be powerless between 2.30am and 6.30am the next day.