President Cyril Ramaphosa has shortened his official visit to Egypt, after holding official talks with President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, to attend to problems at power utility Eskom and to visit flood affected
communities in Gauteng.
On Tuesday, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Khusela Diko said the president had left Cairo and would today meet with the board and management of Eskom “where he will be briefed on plans to mitigate and resolve the current electricity crisis affecting most of the country”.
South Africa moved to an unprecedented Stage 6 of rotational blackouts on Monday, with short notice given to
citizens.
“President Ramaphosa will also visit the operations centre at Eskom headquarters at Megawatt Park in Gauteng,” said Diko.
Eskom on Monday night apologised for plunging the country into darkness, claiming wet coal was the reason why it couldn’t generate krag.
“We regret and sincerely apologise that stage 4 load shedding will move to Stage 6 load shedding as from 18:00 today, as a result of a shortage of capacity,” Eskom said.
President @CyrilRamaphosa will on Wednesday, 11th of December 2019, meet with the Board and Management of the national power utility #Eskom- where he will be briefed on plans to mitigate and resolve the current electricity crisis affecting most of the country.
— PresidencyZA (@PresidencyZA) December 10, 2019
“This follows a technical problem at Medupi Power Station impacting additional generation supply. The heavy rains has caused coal handling and operational problems at several power stations. Stage 6 requires 6000MW to be rotationally load shed.”
On Tuesday, the power utility reverted back to Stage 4 load shedding.
Meanwhile, Cape Town’s water and sanitation department said Stage 6 load shedding would likely constrain its ability to provide water supply in the reticulation system across the whole of the city.
“Our pumps for both the water and sewerage systems cannot operate properly without power for significant
periods,” it said.
It advised residents to store enough municipal tap water for drinking, cooking and basic ablution.