No load shedding will be implemented on Sunday (13 December), power utility Eskom said in a statement, “as the emergency generation reserves have sufficiently recovered”.
The group had implemented stage two load-shedding on Saturday, after a large number of unforeseen breakdowns from the ageing, unreliable plant(s) over the past few days.
Eskom urged South Africans to use power sparingly as the grid is still “severely constrained”.
The group said it currently has 8,299MW of planned maintenance, while an additional 10,661MW of capacity is unavailable due to unplanned maintenance.
No loadshedding will be implemented today as the emergency generation reserves have sufficiently recovered, Eskom thanks the people of South Africa for support during loadshedding@News24 @SABCNews @NewzroomAfrika @eNCA @IOL @ewnupdates @SundayTimesZA pic.twitter.com/8bTPVrsTWP
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) December 13, 2020
Bloomberg meanwhile reported that ABB Ltd will repay R1.56 billion to Eskom, the latest international company to return money after being ensnared in corruption probes in the country.
The reimbursement was agreed with the nation’s Special Investigating Unit, state-owned Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd said in a statement Friday.
ABB has already accounted for the bulk of the payment in its financials, the Zurich-based company said in a separate statement.
By returning the funds, ABB joins McKinsey & Co and KPMG LLP among firms that have given back money they’ve earned in South Africa from contracts tainted by graft.
McKinsey said it would repay R650 million to the state logistics company and national airline after handing back R1 billion to Eskom two years ago. The US consultancy’s chief risk officer testified at a state judicial inquiry on Thursday.
The recovery is the biggest ever by the SIU and sends “a clear message about the commitment of government to assist the SIU and other law-enforcement agencies to do their jobs,” Justice Minister Ronald Lamola said at a briefing.
In July, Eskom said it estimated it had overpaid ABB by R1 billion and the engineering firms collectively by R4 billion. It plans to pursue a further R3 billion of irregular spending at Kusile.
Read: Eskom targets private estates after resident racks up R89,000 bill
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