The spectre of rolling blackouts returned on Tuesday morning after Eskom warned that there was a high probability of load shedding.
“The electricity supply system is under severe pressure,” Eskom said on Twitter. “We urge everyone to switch off their geysers and air conditioning immediately.”
Curiously, the utility subsequently deleted its tweets.
Its warning comes after the festive season respite from rolling blackouts.
Late last year, Eskom battled to keep the lights on following the collapse of one of its coal storage silos as well as diesel shortages and maintenance issues.
On 5 December, Eskom implemented stage three load shedding. Stage one allows for up to 1GW of the national load to be shed, stage two for up to 2GW and stage three for up to 4GW.
On 8 December, Eskom CEO Tshediso Matona denied that the state utility was in a crisis. — TechCentral and Sapa