Eskom warns of more load shedding despite clinching wage deal
Eskom warns of more load shedding in the next few weeks despite the wage deal it signed with trade unions on Tuesday.
Workers affiliated to the National Union of Mineworkers and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa should start returning to work on Wednesday, but the power utility says the maintenance backlog will see power cuts remain in place.
Numsa, Solidarity, and NUM clinched a wage deal of 7% on Tuesday, ending a two-week-long protest which triggered prolonged stage 6 load shedding.
Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said it will take a few weeks for the power generation system to fully recover to pre-strike levels.
"Stage 5 load shedding will be implemented on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, with varying stages implemented for the rest of the week. While some generation units have been returned to service over the past few days, this is not sufficient to suspend load shedding as other generation units have had to be taken offline for repairs.
"Depending on several possibilities - including the workforce fully returning to work to conduct much-needed repairs to equipment - it is anticipated load shedding will gradually be lowered to stage 2 by the weekend," said Mantshantsha
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