As the African National Congress (ANC) prepares for its 111th birthday celebrations in Mangaung in the Free State, power utility Centlec told The Citizen there would be no reprieve from load shedding.
The ANC’s January 8 Statement celebration is expected to take place at the Dr Petrus Molemela Stadium on Sunday.
Load shedding exclusion
During the ANC’s 55th National Elective Conference at Nastec in December, the venue was excluded from load shedding to assist security operations in the area during the conference.
“It is due to the presence of high security risk persons such as the president of the country, deputy-president, and the government ministers,” City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said.
The country was at stage 6 load shedding at the time.
No reprieve this time
However, this time there are expected to be no exclusions from load shedding when the ANC gathers at the Dr Petrus Molemela Stadium.
Centlec spokesperson Lele Mamatu said load shedding will continue as per Eskom’s schedule.
“There are no plans and arrangements to exclude the stadium from the load shedding. The stadium has a backup generator.”
A source in the ANC echoed Centlac’s statement saying that the party has backup generators to ensure the January 8 celebrations are uninterrupted.
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Load shedding
Meanwhile, load shedding is expected to yo-yo between stage 3 and 4 until.
Eskom spokesperson Menzi Mngomezulu said the load shedding was being implemented “as a last resort” in view of the shortage of generation capacity and the need to attend to breakdowns.
Due to the delays in returning seven generating units to service, stage 4 load shedding will be implemented from 4pm this afternoon until 5am tomorrow morning. Thereafter, stage 3 load shedding will be implemented until 4pm on Friday.
“This pattern will be repeated until Sunday morning. Eskom will publish a further update as soon as there are any significant changes. The further delays in returning to service a generating unit each at Arnot, Camden, Kendal, Kriel, Matla and two units at Majuba power station has contributed to the capacity constraints,” Mngomezulu said.
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