South Africans have been left in the dark by Eskom in more ways than one in recent days, and have expressed frustration at having their power cut up to three times per day.
Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, began the media briefing by apologising to the country for the inconvenience caused by the load shedding, stating that the natural disaster in Mozambique has also been playing a significant role in the current power cuts – a large part of the Cahora Bassa power plant’s electricity is supplied by Mozambique.
“At least one transmission tower is down in Mozambique and it’s still very difficult to access sites because of the flooding that has occurred there. So, our engineers are still unable to say when we can expect the power to plug in back to South Africa,” Eskom spokesperson Andrew Etzinger said.
Locals will be happy to know that the power utility has said that more electricity may be made available from Wednesday afternoon, and that its generators will be back online by Thursday, as the public holiday is predicted to ease the strain on the grid.
Minister Gordhan also made the promise to communicate the situation more clearly with the country, as many have been expressing confusion over the current state of Eskom.
He explained that the aging of the coal plants have strongly been contributing to load shedding, as several of the plants have been operating for more than 35 years.
Eskom chairman Jabu Mabuza is also determined to improve the public utility’s communication with the public in order to be more transparent and answer questions on the public enterprise’s state of affairs more timeously.
Stage 2 load shedding is currently in full effect until 9am today, while Stage 4 will be implemented until 11pm this evening.
Picture: Pixabay