Load shedding: Eskom holds Stage 4 in place on Wednesday 20 March

Stage 4 load shedding will continue to disrupt the lives of South Africans on Wednesday 20 March, as Eskom fails to revive generating units.

For the fifth consecutive day, Eskom will be shedding 4000MW from the power grid in order to avert a catastrophic blackout. For South Africa, the situation is already bordering on catastrophe, as the gears of industry grind to a halt and productivity slows to a crawl.

It’s estimated that, by the end of today, the last five days of rigorous load shedding would’ve cost the South African economy approximately R20 billion in unserved energy costs.

Eskom’s incompetence and dishonesy

Even more worrying is that, despite Eskom’s calls for calm, it would seem that the country is no nearer to a stable power grid, meaning that the utility is unlikely to remedy the situation by the end of the week. The African National Congress’ head of elections, Fikile Mbalula, has said that a permanent resolution to the issue of load shedding will be found “in the next couple of weeks”.

For South Africans, particularly business owners struggling under the weight of major economic disruptions, anger and frustration is beginning to reach a climax.

In an attempt to allay the growing discontent, on Tuesday, Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan, addressed the media regarding the grievous situation, flanked by Eskom boss, Jabu Mabuza. This address had the opposite effect of what was intended and, instead, sparked fierce debate about Eskom’s manipulation of the facts.

Energy Expert Coalition contributor, Ted Blom, believes that the situation is far worse than Eskom wants us to believe. After dissecting Eskom’s media briefing, in which it was determined that the utility had shed 4900MW from the grid on Monday; an amount far beyond the limitations of Stage 4. Blom explained Eskom deceit:

“They lied to us in their presentation. They mentioned they dropped 4 900MW when the most they can remove for Stage 4 is 4000MW. They have put Stage 5 in place and lied to everyone. That is what was stated to us categorically.”

Stage 4 load shedding, Wednesday 20 March

#POWERALERT 1
Date: 19 March 2019

Eskom to continue with loadshedding @eNCA @ewnupdates @SABCNewsOnline @News24 @SowetanLIVE @CityPowerJhb @CityTshwane @City_Ekurhuleni @CityofCT @eThekwiniM @MangaungCity pic.twitter.com/QPYWeM15Eu

— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) March 19, 2019

On Tuesday evening, as was expected, Eskom released a statement notifying South Africans of further power cuts on Wednesday. According to the statement, Stage 4 will begin again at 9:00 and end at 23:00. The reason given for another day of power cuts is “a shortage of capacity”.

To find out when you’ll be hit by rotational blackouts, here’s how to check your area-specific load shedding schedule.