Eskom To Implement Stage 5 Load Shedding

Eskom announced that the implementation of Stage 4 load-shedding will remain till Monday at 4:00 p.m. and they will switch to Stage 5 load-shedding on Tuesday.

"The pattern of Stage 4 load shedding from 05:00 to 16:00 and Stage 5 load shedding from 16:00 to 05:00 will be repeated until further notice," Eskom mentioned in the statement released on their official website. "A further update will be published as soon as any significant changes occur."

Energy company Eskom, which is responsible for supplying electricity in South Africa, further mentioned in the announcement that "over the past 24 hours, a generating unit at Arnot Power Station was successfully returned to service."

Arnot Power Station is a coal-fired power plant, which is being operated by Eskom. The plant is located in Mpumalanga, a province in eastern South Africa.

"During the same period a generating unit each at Kriel, Medupi and Tutuka power stations were taken offline for repairs," Eskom continued. "The return to service of a generating unit each at Duvha, Medupi, Tutuka and two units at Hendrina power stations are delayed."

"The repairs to the damaged towers from Cahora Bassa in Mozambique is continuing and is anticipated to be completed by early next week. Breakdowns currently increased to 17 008MW of generating capacity while 4 600MW of generating capacity is out of service for planned maintenance," added Eskom.

Following the statement, many online users shared their disappointment on Twitter.

"What happened to the Stage 1 we were promised?" one of the Twitter users commented under the statement, which was shared via the official handle of Eskom.

Another one wrote, "Changing the stages? Does it really make any difference??????? In the morning we check schedule and we off once but come evening there is a change, REALLY!!!!"

One of the users tagged the new electricity minister, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, saying "We were happy (not by choice anyway) to experience #stage1 after a long time, but it was short-lived. Any plans to end loadsheding?"

Last week, the company shared a statement on March 10, forecasting that they will be switching to Stage 1 for Sunday. However, Stage 4 was implemented at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday.

As per the load-shedding schedule, Stage 1 means there would be shed from 1:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. while Stage 5 means, there would be load-shedding from 1:00 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. alongside 09:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 17:00 p.m. to 19:30 p.m.

Ramokgopa, 48, was appointed as electricity minister on March 1 by president Cyril Ramaphosa.

Ramokgopa addressed the electricity crisis in the country and clarified that this problem won't be solved overnight.

"Will load shedding end tomorrow? No. It's definitely not going to go away," Ramokgopa said last week. "But as the president says, the severity and regularity of load shedding is something that's on our radar and we will share with you our implementation plan."