South Africa’s power distribution company, Eskom, says it will suspend the controversial load shedding today, June 6, due to lower anticipated demand and improved available generation capacity.
The company says load shedding will be suspended from 08:00 GMT until 16:00 GMT.
Since 2007, South Africa has battled to manage its power generation systems, with load shedding adopted to enable different parts of the country get electricity for at least a few hours every day.
But it has led to an unprecedented rolling blackout, with many areas left without power for hours or even days.
Eskom says the load-shedding suspension has been further made possible by South Africans who heeded the call to use electricity sparingly and efficiently, including switching off geysers from 17:00 GMT to 21:00 GMT.
Eskom explained this helped alleviate the pressure on the power system and contributed to lower stages of load shedding.
With winter approaching, South Africans had been worried the load shedding would severely impact their lives and had called on the government to intervene.
