By Daanyaal Matthews
Loadshedding has returned to South Africa, with Stage 2 implemented on Monday. This comes just weeks after the electricity minister unveiled Eskom’s winter readiness plan, assuring the public that the utility was prepared for the colder season.
The winter plan hinged on the grid not losing more than 13,000 MW of capacity—a threshold that, if crossed, would trigger Stage 2 loadshedding.
Eskom has since explained that the return of rolling blackouts is due to delays in bringing several units back online from scheduled maintenance. This, combined with unexpected breakdowns, temporarily pushed generation losses beyond the 13,000 MW mark, prompting the implementation of Stage 2.
Speaking on VOC’s Newsbeat, Professor Sampson Mamphweli, head of the Department of Science and Innovation’s Energy Secretariat at the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI), called the development a setback—but remained optimistic about the broader outlook.
“The situation has improved drastically from previous years. In the past, Eskom didn’t have reliable maintenance systems. They would return a unit from maintenance, and it would break down almost immediately. Now, we’re seeing a more stable process—when a unit is taken down for maintenance, it can be returned without failure,” Mamphweli explained.
Listen to the full interview here.
