President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa says it is difficult to say when load shedding will end.
Ramaphosa, who spoke on the sidelines of the annual Presidential Golf Challenge on Saturday, said it remains ‘’a constant problem for South Africans.’’
His comments come on the heels of a statement from state power regulator Eskom on Saturday, which has pushed load shedding to Stage 6.
In the statement, Eskom says it has been forced to ramp up load shedding to Stage 6 in some areas due to high demand.
Stage 6 load shedding
It added that the implementation is until further notice and that some power stations have been taken offline.
''In spite of returning two generating units to service over the last 24 hours, two generating units were also taken offline.
''This combined with the need to replenish the pumped storage dams in preparation for the week ahead, necessitated the implementation of Stage 6 loadshedding from midnight until further notice,'' said Eskom in a message posted on X.
"We are doing all we can to ensure that we address load shedding. It is a constant problem for South Africans; we know that, and everybody feels it. It’s not comfortable at all. In fact, it does sometimes evoke a lot of anger,” said Ramaphosa.
Failed projections
This week’s rolling blackouts come a few days after President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his 2024 State of the Nations Address that the end of the blackouts was in sight.
The president now says he will, in the future, refrain from making projections that indicate when load shedding will end.
‘’Everybody wants to know; everybody is talking about it. They want to know, ‘When is it ending?’ They want a date, and you give them a date, and there is loadshedding thereafter, then they say you are lying.’’
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