By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
State owned power utility Eskom said on Thursday Stage 5 load shedding will be implemented from 16:00 until 05:00 on Friday, with various stages of loadshedding to be implemented over the weekend.
Stage 3 loadshedding is expected to be implemented between 05:00 and 16:00 on Saturday, with Stage 1 expected over the same time period on Sunday.
Eskom, which has varied between Stages 4 and 6 this week, said in a statement that breakdowns have decreased to 16 369MW, and over the past 24 hours a generating unit at Matla Power Station has returned to service, although another generator was taken out of service.
Delays in returning units to service at Camden, Hendrina, Kendal, Matla, and two generating units at Tutuka continues to add to currency capacity constraints, it said.
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.
Eskom chairman Mpho Makwana says the utility’s board is reviewing several alleged “transgressions” that former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter had committed in media interviews and in his recently-published book.
Speaking during an Eskom State of the System update on Thursday, Makwana said De Ruyter had broken the trust of the utility in the “most repulsive manner possible”.
De Ruyter made serious accusations regarding the involvement of senior ANC politicians in corruption at Eskom during a bombell interview on E-tv’s My Guest Tonight with Annika Larsen, which aired in February 2023.
He expanded upon some of these allegations in Truth to Power: My Three Years Inside Eskom — a book published by Penguin Random House that appeared in stores on Sunday morning without any prior announcement.
In addition to confirming that he had raised the suspected involvement of a senior politician in the Mpumalanga coal cartels to public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan, the former CEO delved into serious operational shortcomings and a “culture of neglect” at the utility.
De Ruyter included details about the explosion of Medupi Unit 4, Kusile nearly running out of coal, and a general inability to perform the required planned maintenance to extend the life of coal-fired power stations.
Medupi and Kusile are supposed to be Eskom’s flagship coal power stations, undertaken specifically to deal with South Africa’s energy crisis.
Makwana alleged that De Ruyter had committed “transgressions” with his revelations because he was an executive in a fiduciary position in possession of proprietary information of a national key point.
“Most importantly, breaches occurred in terms of the Protection of Personal Information Act, various aspects of an executive director’s duties as defined in the Companies Act, the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), and his own contract of employment clauses on confidentiality,” said Makwana.
Our corporate governance teams are reviewing all this and will take appropriate and reasonable steps to ensure that the board takes all necessary action.