By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Eskom has announced that it will implement stage 5 load shedding on Wednesday and Thursday (6 and 7 July), and that rolling blackouts will continue through to the weekend.
The power utility had hoped to keep load shedding at stage 4 at most, but is still experiencing a shortage in capacity.
“While some generation units have been returned to service over the past few days, this is not sufficient to suspend load shedding as other generation units have had to be taken offline for repairs, “it said.
“Load shedding will therefore continue being implemented at varying stages during the next few weeks as the generation capacity shortages persist. Eskom cautions the public that it will still take a few weeks for the power generation system to fully recover to pre-strike levels. Eskom will communicate and implement any changes as may be necessary.”
Depending on several possibilities – including the workforce fully returning to work to conduct much-needed repairs to equipment – it is anticipated load shedding will gradually be lowered to Stage 2 by the weekend.
The new schedule is as follows:
Wednesday (6 July)
Stage 2 load shedding from 00h00 to 05h00
Stage 4 load shedding from 05h00 to 16h00
Stage 5 load shedding from 16h00 to 22h00
Stage 4 load shedding from 22h00 to 00h00
Thursday (7 July)
Stage 2 load shedding from 00h00 to 05h00
Stage 4 load shedding from 05h00 to 16h00
Stage 5 load shedding from 16h00 to 22h00
Stage 4 load shedding from 22h00 to 00h00
Friday (8 July)
Stage 2 load shedding from 00h00 to 05h00
Stage 3 load shedding from 05h00 to 00h00
Saturday and Sunday (9 and 10 July)
Stage 2 load shedding from 00h00 to 00h00
For access to other load shedding schedules, Eskom has made them available on loadshedding.eskom.co.za.
Smartphone users can also download the app EskomSePush to receive push notifications when load shedding is implemented, as well as the times the area you are in will be off.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) members at Eskom finally signed a 7% agreement across the board and a R400 hike in the housing allowance.
Eskom said the overall effect of this agreement on the wage bill would be more than R1 billion over the period of the agreement.
“This of course will be a struggle for Eskom to afford,” power utility said.