EWN<\/a> that while the grid is stable on Sunday morning, power cuts could follow later in the day.<\/p>\n\u201cThe system remains constrained and we don\u2019t anticipate the need to go into load shedding this morning, however, over the evening peak, there may be a need to.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s state-run electricity producer and its labor unions have agreed to hold new negotiations over pay, the government said, ending protests at power plants that have caused disruptions to power supply, Bloomberg reported.<\/p>\n
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan called a meeting Friday with Eskom SOC Holdings Ltd, the National Union of Mineworkers, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and the Solidarity union \u201cto normalize relationships and normalize operations\u201d at the utility, he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
It was agreed at the talks that Eskom\u2019s proposed zero-percent wage increase is \u201coff the table,\u201d Gordhan said.<\/p>\n
The government intervention wasn\u2019t enough to spare South Africans from power cuts on Saturday night. Stage-two load shedding started at 5 p.m. and may last until 9 p.m., Eskom said in a statement, using a local term for rolling blackouts.<\/p>\n
The utility had said earlier that the power system would be \u201cseverely constrained\u201d amid cold winter weather. There are four levels of cuts, with the second stage indicating a shortage of as much as 2,000 megawatts.<\/p>\n
Eskom, which generates almost all of the nation\u2019s electricity, has been locked in a dispute with workers after wage talks broke down last week over the state-owned utility\u2019s insistence that it can\u2019t afford pay increases.<\/p>\n
The company began cutting power to some areas Thursday night for the first time since 2015, as demonstrators blockaded roads and attacked staff.<\/p>\n
The protests by employees came at a tough time for Eskom and the South African economy more broadly.<\/p>\n
While demand for electricity increases over the Southern Hemisphere winter, Eskom has also battled coal shortages, allegations of corruption and mismanagement, and struggled to raise the funding it needed earlier this year.<\/p>\n
A prolonged repeat of outages from three years ago would undermine signs of recovery in Africa\u2019s most-industrialized economy.<\/p>\n
The utility got a court order declaring the protests unlawful and prohibiting the intimidation of other workers and contractors. Employees were also barred from hijacking coal trucks and sabotaging Eskom\u2019s electricity infrastructure.<\/p>\n
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