Ramaphosa says load shedding bad for economy
Eskom has announced that load shedding has been reverted to stage 4.
On Monday, citizens were up in arms when the utility announced that load shedding had escalated to stage 6.
This meant that the power utility would be shedding 6,000 megawatts from the national grid.
Now the country is on stage 4 until 11 pm on Tuesday night.
Speaking to eNCA on Monday night, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said: “We have to ask tough questions like how do we improve the level of performance, how do we get better quality of repair work and how do we recover from the flooded power stations as well?”
Chairperson Jabu Mabuza said stage 6 was to avoid a total blackout.
“I don’t think we’re failing. I think some of the reasons why we find ourselves where we are is mainly the reliability of the plant due to maintenance that has not been done. The situation we find ourselves in is to make sure that it is controlled. Load shedding stage 6 is not a calamity, it is controlled to protect the system from a total blackout.”
Meanwhile, President Cyril Ramaphosa said this was bad for the economy, adding that the anger and frustration of citizens were understandable.
“Our immediate priority is to get as much generating capacity back online within the shortest possible time. Eskom’s emergency response command centre and technical teams are working around the clock to fix multiple breakdowns.”
Read the full story on: Eyewitness News.