South Africans’ reprieve from Stage 4 rolling blackouts was short-lived, after Eskom announced load shedding will be pushed to stage 3 from 16:00 on Tuesday.
On its Twitter page, power utility Eskom posted: “Stage 3 load shedding will be implemented from 4pm today until 5am tomorrow morning. This will be repeated every day for the remainder of the week. Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented from 5am tomorrow morning until 4pm.
“This will be repeated daily for the remainder of the week. Eskom appeals to the public to conserve as much electricity as possible during this period.”
South Africa returned to Stage 1 load shedding on Monday (27 December 2022), even though Stage 2 and 3 load shedding was on the cards from 27 December, due to the lower demand for electricity, the power supplier said in a statement.
This offered a sense of relief for South Africans who planned to stock their freezers for the Christmas and New Year celebrations.
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But their joy was fleeting after they received the notification informing them of the stage bump-up.
South Africans have not desisted from taking to social media to lash out at the power utility, which has mostly responded with general advice on how to keep one’s appliances safe.
“Please remember to switch off all non-essential electrical appliances during load shedding to avoid power surges when the power returns. Failure to do so may lead to unnecessary trips or damages to household appliances when the supply is restored,” the power supplier posted on its Twitter page.
Net loss of R12 billion
The ailing parastatal has been battling to keep the lights on, with January the only month in 2022 that did not have load shedding, according to The Outlier.
Eskom also announced last Friday that it has incurred a net loss of R12.3 billion after tax, despite the power utility’s operating profit improving by 238% to R20.4 billion.
The power utility’s CEO André de Ruyter said that despite this year’s loss, it has been reduced by 51% from the previous financial year, in which the power utility recorded a net loss of R25 billion after tax.
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