According to the Daily Maverick, South Africa experienced an unexpected return to Stage 6 load shedding over the weekend due to multiple unit failures at Majuba, Camden, and Medupi power stations, leading to a significant loss in generation capacity. Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa assured the public that the government is addressing the crisis and aims to eliminate load shedding as a structural issue. The outages come shortly after Eskom celebrated 300 consecutive days without load shedding, sparking public frustration and speculation that the power cuts were linked to the 12.7% tariff increase approval, significantly lower than Eskom’s requested 36% hike. Eskom CEO Dan Marokane attributed the crisis to technical failures, including a transformer overload at Majuba, but emphasized that recovery efforts were underway, with several units already returning to service. Meanwhile, social media allegations suggested Eskom’s diesel supply was cut due to non-payment, which the utility denied. Despite setbacks, officials remain optimistic about restoring stability by the end of the week.
Poll Question: What do you think is the main reason for the recent Stage 6 load shedding?
