Electricity minister says load shedding won’t be normalised amid public anger

November 24, 2023 204

In a move seen as a bid to quell public anger, Minister of Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, has apologised to South Africans for Stage 6 load shedding.

Ramokgopa and Eskom executives provided feedback on the reasons for the ramped-up power cuts, set to be scaled down next week.

The Minister has expressed concern over the impact of Stage 6 has on businesses and ordinary South Africans, saying it is extreme.

The embattled power utility cracked up the blackouts at 12pm, citing the shortage of generation capacity and the need to replenish the organisation’s emergency reserves as reasons for the move.

In a statement, Eskom says the unplanned outages are currently at 15 901MW of generating capacity, while the capacity out of service for planned maintenance is 5 822MW.

The Minister says Stage 6 is an extraordinary event that is unwelcomed as it undermines the economic challenges of the country.

Ramokgopa has assured South Africans that Eskom will initiate interventions in the coming days to ensure that there was an energy buffer for the next two weeks.

This excessive level of load shedding comes a day after the Minister confirmed that South Africans will not be spared from blackouts this festive season – albeit at lower levels.

Crippling power cuts have devastated the country’s economy and disrupted the daily lives of South Africans, who’ll likely have to brace themselves for a dark December.

Some of them have taken to social media to voice their dissatisfaction over the current state of affairs.

Stage 6 is back. During a heatwave. Eskom has collapsed. Transnet has collapsed. The economy has collapsed. And the “minister of visits” will provide the same tired solutions that have not worked. According to govt, the private sector is the solution to every problem in SA.

— @DumaGqubule (@DumaGqubule) November 24, 2023

Now that we on stage 6 loadshedding, our minister of electricity is probably expecting the whole country to use his apology to light electricity at home 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/aYiw3nKnqA

— m a s h è s h a 💨 (@_mashesha) November 24, 2023

Loadshedding stage 6 closer to elections is what’s needed to remind the voters of a very important message.

— Madima (@MaanoMadima) November 24, 2023

We should have known that stage 6 loadshedding was up his sling pic.twitter.com/jXhcjxr9T7

— Christo 🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦 (@ChristoThurston) November 24, 2023

Babe @CyrilRamaphosa we are going into stage 6 loadshedding shortly. Where are you? Please drop whatever you’re doing and attend to the electricity crisis, even if it’s just taking pictures.

— Cllr_Welekazi💙🇿🇦 (@African_Spring) November 24, 2023

Geez. Eskom is taking #BlackFriday seriously.

Not even lunchtime and our area is up to stage 6, with 14 hours of planned loadshedding this weekend alone!

Slashing electricity (but not the prices!) 🥴

— Suntosh Pillay (@suntoshpillay) November 24, 2023