Eskom backtracks, says power cuts to continue until Monday morning

Eskom says stage two load shedding will continue from 8 o’clock this morning until 5 o’clock on Monday morning.

The power utlity is attributing this decision to a constrained and vulnerable power system.

South Africans were thrust back into load shedding misery on Saturday night after more than three weeks of reprieve.

Eskom blamed this on an unanticipated conveyor belt at Medupi power station and promised to restore power at 8 o’clock on Sunday morning.

However in a statement the national electricity provider says, while the belt has been repaired, the incident and a loss of additional generation units caused it to deplete diesel and pump storage levels.

It’s now restoring them for the coming week.

The power cuts come as South Africa continues to try find solutions to its energy crisis.

In December, President Cyril Ramaphosa had to cut short his official visit to Egypt after rolling power cuts and stage six load shedding was implemented, forcing mines to stop their underground operations.

President Ramaphosa said there would likely be no load shedding between 17 December and January 13 as leave for those responsible for keeping the lights on was cancelled.

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Source: SABC News (sabcnews.com)