By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Eskom has announced it will implement Stage 2 load shedding from Monday (10 October) until Wednesday (12 October).
Eskom said that load shedding would take effect between 16h00 and 00h00. The company stressed that it would attempt to limit load shedding to only night-time to best suit the country’s economy and people.
“The load shedding will be used to replenish emergency generation reserves during the night to bolster generation capacity. Eskom will publish a further update on Wednesday afternoon or as soon as any significant changes occur,” said Eskom.
Eskom said that since the start of the weekend (8 October), multiple generation units had come back online; however, a unit at each Kendal and Kusile power station were taken off for repairs.
“We currently have 5,487MW on planned maintenance, while another 14,061MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.”
This follows the group saying that it would suspend load shedding for the weekend period from 05:00 on Saturday morning (8 October) in the wake of lower anticipated demand as well as adequate levels of emergency generation reserves.
The power utility stated prior to the temporary suspension: “While the generation capacity constraints persist, the suspension of load-shedding is possible due to the anticipated lower weekend demand, as well as adequate levels of emergency generation reserves.”
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 ministers and deputy ministers do not have to pay for water and electricity thanks to changes to the ministerial handbook earlier this year.
And while the rest of the country sat in the dark for weeks due to load shedding, including hospitals, schools and other critical services, the same ministers have the luxury of uninterrupted power in their private residences in Pretoria.
The changes made to the ministerial handbook in May 2022, which removed the R5,000 cap on municipal utilities covered by the government.
President Cyril Ramaphosa signed off on these changes in May, which also included a R100 000 bump in the limit for ministers to purchase luxury cars. Ministers and their deputies can now spend up to R800,000 for their vehicles.
As per the handbook, the Department of Public Works pays for ministers’ utilities – so taxpayers foot the bill for these privileges and luxuries.
cabinet members are also exempt from load shedding as their private residences in Pretoria are on the same grid as the union buildings, which cannot be powered down due to its status as a national key point.
For ministers who do not reside in load-shedding-free areas, the department will also fund generators.