Eskom suspends load shedding for longer – here’s the updated schedule
Eskom says that load shedding will be suspended for an hour longer on Sunday (9 April) and will be moved down one stage from the previously planned levels overnight.
Load shedding will continue to be suspended until 17h00 on Sunday. Thereafter, stage 2 loadshedding will be implemented from 17h00 to 05h00 on Monday.
Load shedding will then be suspended again from 05h00 until 16h00 on Monday.
Eskom said it would provide an update on Monday afternoon or as soon as any significant changes occur.
Despite the easing of load shedding over the long Easter weekend, South Africa has still not been able to fully escape rolling blackouts since the first and only full-day suspension in March.
The country has been in a near-permanent state of load shedding since September 2022, only breaking from the rolling blackouts for three days.
The country has suffered through 98 days of load shedding in 2023, with the South African Reserve Bank anticipating 250 days of load shedding this year in total.
Energy experts and even the new minister of electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa have warned that the country faces a dark, cold winter, with Eskom looking at a potential energy shortfall of 10,000MW as winter demand picks up.
Unless Eskom can bring more generating capacity online, or curb demand – or perhaps a combination of both – such a shortfall would point to roughly 10 stages of load shedding.
The government and Eskom have been working to boost generating capacity through various new build projects and other interventions; however, none of these have proven to be viable immediate or short-term solutions to the problem.
Here is the updated schedule:
Sunday, 9 April
- Suspended: until 17h00
- Stage 2: 16h00 to 00h00
Monday, 10 April
- Stage 2: 00h00 to 05h00
- Suspended: 05h00 to 16h00
- Stage TBD
Schedules
For people living in the major metros, load shedding schedules are available here:
- City of Johannesburg
- City of Ekurhuleni
- City of Tshwane
- City of Cape Town (PDF)
- Nelson Mandela Bay
- eThekwini
- Manguang
- Buffalo City
For access to other load shedding schedules, Eskom has made them available on loadshedding.eskom.co.za.
Smartphone users can also download the app EskomSePush to receive push notifications when load shedding is implemented, as well as the times the area you are in will be off.
Read: South Africa is losing billions of rands – and it’s not because of load shedding
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