Eskom will continue with power interruptions until at least 5am on Monday, the state-owned utility said on Friday.

“Breakdowns and persistent shortages of generation capacity necessitate the continuous implementation of stage-4 load shedding until 5am on Sunday, and thereafter stage 3 until 5am on Monday,” the company said in a statement.

The usual breakdowns in its coal-fired generation fleet are to blame: a generating unit each at Kriel, Majuba and Tutuka power stations fell over in the past 24 hours.

“On Sunday, Eskom will provide the outlook of the load shedding stages for the week ahead as the teams are working around the clock to return units to service,” it said.

This weekend’s schedule

Stage 4 until 5am on Sunday
Stage 3 from 5am on Sunday to 5am on Monday
Next week’s stages to be communicated over the weekend

“While some generation units are anticipated to return to service during next week, it is necessary to extend the load shedding to replenish the emergency generation reserves, which have been depleted by extensive utilisation to limit the amount of load shedding over the past two weeks.” — (c) 2022 NewsCentral Media