By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Load shedding will be upgraded to Stage 4 at 16:00 on Saturday until 05:00 on Sunday morning, Eskom said in a statement.
Thereafter, Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented from 05:00 until 16:00 followed by Stage 3 load shedding until 05:00 on Monday morning.
A further update for the week ahead will be provided in due course.
South Africa has suffered through 125 consecutive days of load shedding since late October 2022.
Analysis of load shedding trends in the country shows that despite all promises to the contrary, rolling blackouts are getting increasingly worse and unless there some serious interventions to change course, the country will likely hit stage 7 and 8 load shedding by August 2023.
The national government has assured South Africans that plans are in place to add capacity to the grid, but none of these plans are short-term or offer quick relief.
Eskom, meanwhile, is in the process of reviewing its load shedding schedules to make room for higher stages, should the need arise.
Markets, businesses and South Africans at large are waiting for president Cyril Ramaphosa to appoint his new ‘minister of electricity’, who will have the unenviable task of being solely responsible for ending the load shedding crisis.
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.