Much to the frustration of many South African businesses and members of the public, load shedding throughout the country has reached its highest extent, namely stage 6, and the current situation is likely to get worse.
Power utility, Eskom has reportedly stated that level 8 load shedding could be on the way. As things stand, level 6 load shedding translates to 4-hour power outages in some areas. In addition to this, roughly 300 employees have been dismissed by the power utility, the outgoing workers include cleaners and gardeners among others.
Eskom went from stages 3 and 4 to stage 6 within a matter of hours. The power utility says it needs to shed six-thousand megawatts from the power grid if it hopes to prevent a complete blackout.
The severity of the ongoing blackouts varies in other parts of the country, such as the Western Cape, in which contingency measures have been put in place to keep load shedding at level 5 despite the current circumstances.
During a media briefing last month, Eskom's Chief of Operations (COO) Jan Oberholzer revealed that the company’s inability to maintain its diesel costs is in large part what has worsened load shedding.
We do not have money to burn diesel anymore. If you find that municipalities owe you R52 billion. But on the other side, you are forced to burn diesel while people owe you money. So we are depleting our cash flows and this is where we find ourselves in a delicate position.
At the time, Oberholzer along with other Eskom top officials admitted that the power utility is in the worst state in its entire history and that its ability to adequately provide power has long fallen below global standards.
