Despite previous intention to avoid load shedding on the weekend, Eskom announced that stage 1 rolling blackouts would have to be implemented on Saturday between 09h00 and 23h00.<\/p>\n
Eskom said that recovery processes were underway, but it was still sitting with several generating units offline.<\/p>\n
“We hope to have recovered by Sunday so that South Africans can enjoy watching the Springboks playing in the Rugby World Cup,” it said.<\/p>\n
The power utility was on track to avoid load shedding over the weekend, but it was hit by a major setback on Friday morning when three additional units went offline due to faults.<\/p>\n
It lost capacity at Medupi 3, 4 and 5 due to coal and ash handling issues.<\/p>\n
This is in addition to the conveyer belt that failed on Saturday (12 October) at the power station.<\/p>\n
Eskom apologised to its\u00a0customers and South Africans for the short notification.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will keep South Africans informed about the status and our recovery efforts throughout this period,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n