Dark weekend ahead as Eskom extends load shedding
Eskom has followed up its announcement of stage 3 throughout Thursday by informing South Africans that the power cuts will continue into the weekend.
The struggling power utility has continued to implement varying stages of load shedding throughout the month of September and the first two weeks of October, blaming it on a shortage of generation capacity and breakdowns at power stations.
The utility has earlier said there will be a break from continuous power cuts, however, stage 3 load shedding was extended into Wednesday.
Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha says power cuts will be suspended for 11 hours on Friday, before returning at 4 pm at stage 3 until midnight.
Stages 3 and 2 will then be rolled out on Saturday - thereafter stage 2 on Sunday.
"Breakdowns of five generating units overnight, two of which have returned to service, have exacerbated current generation capacity shortages, forcing the escalation of load shedding. Since this morning a generation unit each at Arnot and Kriel power stations have been returned to service. Two generation units at Kendal and one at Kusile power stations were taken offline for repairs," says Mantshantsha.
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