Eskom bosses head for emergency meeting with the President

Embattled state power utility Eskom was forced to postpone its latest load shedding media briefing on Monday afternoon after Eskom bosses were summoned for an emergency meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa instead.

Eskom announced its decision to postpone the briefing – meant to update the nation on the state of its systems – a little over than hour before it was scheduled to take place.

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“Unfortunately, Eskom has had to postpone this afternoon’s media briefing due to emergency engagements with the President,” said Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha in a message to the media.

“While we aim to hold the media briefing as soon as possible, the date and time can only be confirmed once meetings with the President are concluded.”

The emergency meeting is another clear indication of the worsening power crisis in the country, with five straight days of stage 6 load shedding. This, as the economy is not fully opened up, with some businesses, schools and universities yet to reopen for the 2023 business year.

At stage 6, consumers and businesses without backup power have to endure between eight to 10 hours of load shedding a day.

The postponement of Eskom’s latest media briefing comes after the President cancelled his plans to travel to Davos, Switzerland this week for this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) gathering. Ramaphosa took the decision to stay behind to deal with the country’s worsening energy crisis.

Read:
Ramaphosa to skip WEF to deal with crippling load shedding
Electricity woes front and centre as SA heads to Davos

The power utility said on Monday that it will offer an update on load shedding at a later stage.

“Eskom will in the meantime publish a power alert with regards to the stages of load shedding.”