South Africa – Thursday, November 30, 2023

Minister in the Presidency responsible for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, says he expects the intensity of load shedding to decrease going into the weekend .

The Minister was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the handover of the first consignment of energy equipment donated by the People’s Republic of China .

“We have been able to return the units much earlier; Kusile [power station] Unit 2 – in the midst of Stage 6 [load shedding] has come back to give us an additional 800MW .

So once we stabilise the emergency reserves, I’m more than confident that going into the weekend, you’ll start seeing that the intensity of load shedding is going to go down,” he said .

Turning to the equipment donated by the Chinese government, the Minister said the equipment will help to “preserve life” as they will serve health facilities and schools, among others .

The consignment includes at least 450 gasoline generators which are expected to be distributed to public facilities such as clinics, schools and courts to use as backup energy sources .

“The Chinese were very enthusiastic and demonstrated levels of solidarity and comradery…that we have enjoyed over a period of time to say that as you resolve the bigger question of ending load shedding, you need some alternative supply or some solution to ensure that there is uninterrupted supply,” he said .

Meanwhile, Eskom has announced that it will lower the intensity of load shedding .

“Due to improved generation recovery and emergency reserves, Stage 3 load shedding was implemented at 10am today [Thursday] until 4pm .

“Thereafter, Stage 4 load shedding will be implemented from 4pm until 8pm, followed by Stage 5 load shedding from 8pm until 5am on Friday,” the power utility said on X .

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