Cabinet reshuffle new ministers

Parliament
Image Source: Flickr/GCIS

One rule for them: Eskom to SUSPEND load shedding – after politicians’ request

Never mind Eskom… PARLIAMENT is the best place to find ‘power’ in South Africa: The latest load shedding developments are, well, utterly extraordinary.

Cabinet reshuffle new ministers

Parliament
Image Source: Flickr/GCIS

If your business has suffered due to the recent schedule of load shedding, you wouldn’t have a cat in hell’s chance of getting Eskom to temporarily suspend their power cuts, just so you can get things done…

When will load shedding be suspended on Friday?

But, if you wear a suit and sit on Parliamentary Zoom calls all day, you’re in luck – you can just have a word with the utility, and they’ll put the lights back on! Eskom has drawn ire from the public on Friday, after hastily agreeing to restore power and briefly lift Stage 2 outages – in order for the National Assembly to pass several Appopriation Bills.

The request, made by Parliament’s deputy speaker and supported by a large number of other political figures, was granted earlier this morning. It now means that, from 12:00 to 17:00 on Friday, the grid will be restored to its full powers. Just like that, eh? However, from 17:00 to 22:00 – when the session of Parliament is over – it’s back to the Stage 2 grindstone.

How can Eskom just turn the power back on?

The confusing upheaval brings light relief for a large portion of the day, but the knock-on effects are now looking quite severe. In order to restore the electricity, Eskom has had to raid its emergency supplies. Large industrial consumers have also been consulted, and they’ve agreed to ease their usage of energy for the remainder of the day.

Amended load shedding schedule from Friday 4 June onwards

So yes, as it stands, the rest of the country is on its knees while Parliament, almost literally, has the privilege of flicking a switch. But wait, there’s more: This ‘Hail Mary’ attempt to keep the power flowing means that more load shedding will have to be implemented over the weekend, and Stage 2 has now been extended to 22:00 on Sunday 6 June.

We’ll have more on the latest round of load shedding throughout the day…