[FILE] A top expert has warned that the situation could deteriorate this week – Image: Canva
[FILE] A top expert has warned that the situation could deteriorate this week – Image: Canva
A leading energy expert in South Africa fears that the current load shedding situation will get worse before it gets any better. UCT professor and energy policy specialist Anton Eberhard has predicted that Stage 6 load shedding ‘is now a possibility’ in the next few days ahead.
Is Stage 6 load shedding coming to South Africa?
Eberhard has forecast a ‘rough week’ for South Africa, and acknowledges the huge economic impact moving to Stage 6 load shedding would have on the country. Earlier today, Eskom confirmed that we’d be moving to Stage 4 load shedding for the rest of Tuesday. Cape Town, however, will remain at Stage 3.
South Africa is in for a rough week. Can’t rule out stage 6 loadshedding. Huge economic impact. https://t.co/tNFISw1XW5
— Anton Eberhard (@AntonEberhard) April 19, 2022
Proposal to declare Eskom a ‘state of disaster’ tabled
The situation is beyond infuriating. KZN is trying to recover from the deadliest floods witnessed in decades, and yet it has very little electricity to help with the salvage efforts. The threat of Stage 6 load shedding only compounds the misery that is being felt deeply across the province.
Meanwhile, businesses and economic ventures which have survived two years of COVID-19 measures are now being threatened by an increased frequency of load shedding.
Ghaleb Cachalia is the Shadow Minister for Public Enterprises. The DA representative now wants Eskom to be declared as a separate ‘state of disaster’, in the hope that drastic action can somehow secure our electricity supply.
“Now that 17GW of unplanned outages and a further 5GW offline for planned maintenance has been announced – amounting to a third of Eskom generation capacity – the country is in a state of disaster, driven by Eskom’s ongoing failures. It is now high time that our demands are addressed.”
“The dire situation in KwaZulu-Natal is being compounded by electricity supply issues which affect the ability, inter alia, to pump much needed water supplies. People are dying, businesses will die, ports are closed and the country will grind to a halt. There must now be a declaration of a State of Disaster at Eskom.”
Ghaleb Cachalia
