Eskom will continue loadshedding at heightened stages on Wednesday, but if nothing else breaks at the frail power utility, we may see reduced outages later this week.
Here’s the loadshedding schedule for the rest of the week
The state-owned utility made strides in bringing a number of generation units back to service, but it conceded that this is still “not sufficient to suspend loadshedding as other generation units have had to be taken offline for repairs.”
“Loadshedding will therefore continue being implemented at varying stages during the next few weeks as the generation capacity shortages persist,” the utility noted in a statement.
On Wednesday, loadshedding will switch between Stage 2 and 4 and rise to Stage 5 during evening peak hours (16:00 – 22:00). If no further surprises surface, then more than likely, rotational power cuts could be reduced to Stage 2 later this week. However, Eskom has made it clear that due to the prolonged unlawful strike, outages will be around for weeks.
“Eskom cautions the public that it will still take a few weeks for the power generation system to fully recover to pre-strike levels,” the power supplier revelaed.
Here is the loadshedding schedule for the rest of the week:
Wednesday, 6 July 2022
STAGE | TIME |
2 | 00:00 – 05:00 |
4 | 05:00 – 16:00 |
5 | 16:00 – 22:00 |
4 | 22:00 – 00:00 |
Thursday, 7 July 2022
STAGE | TIME |
2 | 00:00 – 05:00 |
4 | 05:00 – 16:00 |
5 | 16:00 – 22:00 |
4 | 22:00 – 00:00 |
Friday, 8 July 2022
STAGE | TIME |
2 | 00:00 – 05:00 |
3 | 05:00 – 00:00 |
Saturday, 9 July 2022
STAGE | TIME |
2 | 00:00 – 23:59 |
Sunday, 10 July 2022
STAGE | TIME |
2 | 00:00 – 23:59 |
Finally, after more than a week of prolonged illegal strike action by more than 90% of its workforce, Eskom has “reached an agreement on the 2022 wage talks with the three recognised labour unions.”
As previously reported, Eskom’s 7% across-the-board counteroffer has been accepted and will be applied retrospectively from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023, and it includes an R400 increase in housing allowance.
The power utility revealed the settlement will strain its fiscus by more than R1 billion, a wage bill that will certainly be “a struggle for Eskom to afford.”
All employees are expected to return to work for the first time in over a week.