Politicians shouldn't be making predictions on when load shedding will end, says analyst
South Africa plunged into stage 6 load shedding shortly after the president's State of the Nation Address, in which he promised that power cuts would soon be a thing of the past.
President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers his 2024 State of the Nation (SONA) at Cape Town City Hall on 8 February 2024. Picture: GCIS
CAPE TOWN - South Africa plunged into stage 6 load shedding shortly after the president's State of the Nation Address, in which he promised that power cuts would soon be a thing of the past.
That promise meant little to households across the country that were left in the dark for up to four hours at a time this past weekend.
The power utility faced setbacks over the past few days due to multiple generating units being taken out of service.
Five of them were taken out of service due to boiler tube leaks, resulting in insufficient generation capacity.
Energy analyst, Chris Yelland: "Of course, you have to understand that it's political, it's electioneering time. I think we can expect politicians to start making bold and uninformed promises. The bottom line is they shouldn't be making these kinds of assurances or predictions because frankly, nobody, not the president, not the minister, not the CEO of Eskom or its chairman have any idea what generators are going to go off next week r back on again next week."