Who voted for this? Load shedding returns on Tuesday, in place for 13 hours

Oh yes, you can say it’s unlucky for some. Eskom has confirmed that load shedding will be back in place from 16:00 on Tuesday, right through until 5:00 on Wednesday. The 13-hour schedule was announced just one day after South Africans voted in Municipal Elections across the country – but some things never change.

Stage 2 confirmed: Load shedding schedule for Tuesday 2 November

Eskom was responsible for implementing a dreadful round of power outages last week, which eventually reached Stage 4. Much of the build-up to these Local Elections were dominated by discourse surrounding load shedding – and it’s understood to be one of the main reasons why the ANC are on course to receive less than 50% of the vote.

It’s possible that load shedding will persist further than Wednesday morning, too – and no-one should be surprised if the blackouts get extended. Four separate generational units went down earlier today, essentially giving us the death knell for what was to come. Eskom held out for a few hours, but alas, they’ve since admitted defeat.

Eskom apologise, explain their issues

In a statement issued earlier this afternoon, the utility explained that the ongoing constraints ‘may last all week’, meaning that load shedding could be with us for a matter of days, rather than hours. Splendid.

“Due to a shortage of generational capacity, load shedding will be implemented from 16:00 to 5:00 tomorrow. Another unit at Kusile has tripped, adding to the constraints. Two offline units also failed to return to service, as anticipated. These constraints may persist for the rest of the week, which could force us to extend load shedding.”

“We are currently utilising emergency reserves extensively so we can supplement the available supply. The action has been taken as a last resort to maintain the stability of the power system, and we apologise for the inconvenience.”

Eskom

• You can read the full statement from Eskom here:

#PowerAlert2

Regretfully, Stage 2 loadshedding will be implemented from 16:00 until 05:00 tomorrow as power constraints persist@News24 @Newzroom405 @SABCNews @eNCA @SundayTimesZA @SowetanLIVE pic.twitter.com/h4y5X3fdps

— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) November 2, 2021