Cape Town – Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan has reportedly said that there is absolutely no requirement for the government to declare a state of disaster for Eskom – at this stage.
According to Fin24, Gordhan said this during a plenary session in parliament on Wednesday.
“There should… be a distinction made between a state of disaster just for dramatic effect as compared to a power system emergency – which falls within the purview of the systems operator.
“At all times the main imperative is to avoid the total collapse of the grid… There are therefore internal plans to manage the power system that will allow the systems operator to implement up to stage 8 load shedding in order to protect the grid from total collapse,” the report quoted Gordan as saying.
ALSO READ | Eskom to implement stage 2 load shedding from Tuesday 17:00 until Monday
Stage 8 load shedding would see South Africans endure as much as 13 hours of power cuts per day, BusinessTech reported.
“We all need to understand, we have a system that is old, and not maintained the way it was supposed to. We need to take these units down for planned maintenance – and we don’t have the luxury because of the country’s demands,” Fin24 quoted Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer as saying.
Eskom began stage 2 load shedding on Tuesday and plans to keep it in effect through the weekend until 05:00 on Monday, March 9.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Picture: Twitter/@nthulenyane
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Compiled by Olwethu Mpeshe
