Cape Town – Eskom has assured South Africans that there is no immediate risk of a power grid collapse.
The statement comes in response to social media claims of an impending nationwide blackout.
“Eskom refutes these claims and would like to assure South Africans that there are measures in place to avoid the collapse of the power system. Load shedding is one of these mechanisms.
“The risk of a national blackout, while inherent to the operation of a large power system, has an extremely low likelihood of materialising, given the implementation of a number of control measures, including load shedding.
“The grid is by no means at a higher or imminent risk of a collapse, and it would take an unforeseen and sudden sequence of events that results in a cascading collapse of the transmission or generation system, leading to a complete loss of supply across the country,” the power utility said.
Eskom said it is actively working on generation recovery initiatives to improve the performance of the power system in both the short and long term.
“At the Enlit Africa conference… Interim GCE Calib Cassim reiterated that there are several controls in place… [There are] staff at the System Operator, who have the competence to manage the tight system.
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“Eskom continues to drive generation recovery initiatives that are aimed at preventing the current performance from deteriorating in the short-term, and improving the overall performance of the generation fleet in the long-term,” said Eskom.
EFF leader Julius Malema on Monday warned of a complete electricity grid collapse, saying that the government had failed to put practical and implementable solutions to address the ongoing electricity blackouts.
“In the next two weeks, we have been warned, there is going to be darkness. We are almost at a point of grid collapse. It’s a reality that South Africans must know that we are heading for darkness and ANC politicians are continuing business as usual, as if we are not in a crisis.
“We are in a deep, deep, deep crisis – cell phone networks won’t work, water, even if we have it, we won’t receive it because it needs electricity. Nothing will function.
“We are heading for disaster, worse than what Covid was. No one will go to work. The dead will have to be buried the day because they won’t be fridges to keep them… even those with generators will not be saved from the mess we are going into,” said Malema.
Julius Malema: ‘In the next two weeks , we have been warned , there is going to be darkness’ #EFFPresser pic.twitter.com/Ob5yTz8lU5
— Anele Fumba ?? (@Anelefumba) May 15, 2023
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
