There is a slim chance of a black Christmas - energy experts
South Africans could have a black Christmas if Eskom's woes continue.
The power utility rolled out load shedding over the weekend but suspended it on Sunday.
The latest outages have raised eyebrows about Eskom's capacity to keep lights on Christmas.
"The outlook that Eskom has given for the next 3 months is colour red, in other words a high probability of load shedding except for 3 weeks - that is the week before Christmas, we week of Christmas and New Year and the week after New Year,” says energy expert Chris Yelland.
"The fact that we had load shedding on a Saturday indicates that things were very tight that whole week."
He says despite Eskom's commitment to keep lights on during Christmas, there is no guarantee.
"Nobody can say that with absolute guarantee. Eskom has learned the hard way not to make those kinds of promises. The probability is low but there's always a possibility," he warns.
Another energy expert Ted Blom holds the same belief.
"We're in a dark area again and anything is possible. I fully expect more load shedding this summer season given that they're now fighting a backlog and a slot of the suppliers close over Christmas and they may not be in a position to fix everything up," says Blom.
He says it's too soon to tell if the power utility is making any progress.
"The new management team has been boasting about the extra maintenance and the extra this-and-that that they've done but the fact of the matte is we're back to where we were a year ago.
"It's a disgrace that in a low season, of low demand we can't even match the demand.”
The embattled power utility has urged the public to keep electricity consumption as low as possible.
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