It will be a 'miracle' if South Africa avoids being placed on an international 'grey list'; Mobile operators are likely to increase data costs as they spend billions during load shedding; Government is taking on Eskom's debt and South Africans…
Eskom says that it will implement stage 6 load shedding on Monday, with load shedding expected to take place at various levels for "the next few weeks".
Energy experts have warned that maintenance being done on Eskom's ageing and failing fleet of power stations is ineffective - with the power utility itself admitting that it is only able to temporarily halt the decline.
South Africa’s crippling power cuts are approaching an annual record, and there are still six months to go.
Eskom says that lower than anticipated demand on Friday (1 July) has given it room to reduce its planned stage 6 load shedding in the evening to stage 4.
Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer says load shedding is set to continue throughout the weekend as the power utility works to restore its units and reserves following prolonged strike action.
Alexforbes chief economist Isaah Mhlanga says Eskom's prolonged stage 6 load shedding has already caused significant damage to the country's economy, with over R4 billion wiped from the GDP for each day it continues.
Eskom says it has seen some recovery in replenishing its emergency reserves, but will still need to introduce stage 6 load shedding for parts of Friday.
Eskom has announced that it will be escalating load shedding to stage 6 on Thursday and Friday - with load shedding expected to continue over the weekend.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) have rejected Eskom's latest proposal of a 7% wage increase, and now plan to embark on further protest action against the power utility.
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