Cape Town - Eskom has stopped short of committing itself to whether South Africa can expect load shedding on New Year’s Eve.
In response to a query from the Cape Argus, the Eskom media desk released a brief statement in which it said: “Load shedding depends on the actual status of the network at any given time to balance supply and demand.
“It therefore does not automatically mean less or lower stages of load shedding over the festive period.”
The power utility repeated the assurance it gave ahead of the Christmas festivities that there was likely to be minimal load shedding on December 31 due to a large portion of industry closing over the period.
Eskom hiked load-shedding stages on Wednesday after four units broke down and it experienced “delays in returning some units to service”.
In an alert on Twitter, Eskom said it expected the load shedding pattern of stage 4 load shedding being implemented until 5am followed by stage 3 from 5am to 4pm and stage 4 from 4pm to 5am would be repeated daily until further notice.
Meanwhile, the City said in a statement that it would do its best to protect its customers from a stage or two of load shedding, where possible.
The statement said in part: “It is important to note that the City cannot speak for Eskom, nor can it say at this stage of the week what will happen over the weekend as Eskom’s situation changes at short notice.”
Mayoral council member for safety and security JP Smith said: “Should load shedding continue in the coming days, we will augment our festive season readiness plan to include our load-shedding mitigation plans to make sure we cover as many areas as possible.”
Smith said that already the peak festive season period was incredibly busy and as such the City would require “everyone’s co-operation and a lot of patience on all fronts”.
In the event of an emergency, Smith advised residents to call the City’s Public Emergency Communication Centre at 021 480 7700 from a cellphone or 107 from a landline.
Meanwhile, by yesterday South Africa had experienced 202 days of power cuts in 2022. This represents 55% of the year.
Commenting on the situation, DA parliamentary spokesperson on public enterprises Ghaleb Cachalia said the party was considering the best legal course of action on a local and national level to address the crisis.