Power utility Eskom has announced it load shedding will continue to remain suspended until 4pm on Sunday.
It further stated that Stage 1 load shedding will be implemented thereafter until 5am on Monday.
From 5am on Monday, load shedding will again be suspended until 4pm, followed by the implementation of Stage 2 load shedding until 5am on Tuesday.
“The suspension of load shedding from 5am until 4pm and the implementation of Stage 2 load shedding from 4pm until 5am the next day will be repeated daily from Monday until further notice,” Eskom spokesperson, Daphne Mokwena said.
She said this was as a result of the recovery of emergency reserves and the return of three generating units as well as the anticipated weekday demand.
“A total of 3,330MW of generation capacity is expected to return to service by Wednesday. The evening peak demand forecast for tonight [Sunday] is 24,883MW. Eskom will communicate as soon as there are any significant changes,” Mokwena said.
Last week, during a media briefing on the advancements in the collaboration between the government and business to boost economic growth, the Presidency underscored the goal of achieving 3% to 5% economic growth and generating 2.5 million jobs by 2030, despite the significant challenges faced by South Africa.
The goal seems unreachable after Statistics SA data on Tuesday released GDP data, which showed GDP only increased by 0.1% in the fourth quarter of 2023 over the previous three months, only narrowly avoiding technical recession.
Three work streams report to the Joint Strategic Oversight Committee with the National Energy Crisis Committee (Necom) focused on Eskom, the National Logistics Crisis Committee (NLCC) focused on Transnet and the Joint Initiative on Crime and Corruption (JICC) focused on crime and corruption, Business Report wrote.
The Presidency director general Phindile Bulani said real progress had been made in each focal area.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
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