City Power Rejects Eskom’s Directive & Explains Why it Won’t Implement Load Shedding in Joburg
City Power says it will not cut Joburg residents’ power despite Eskom’s directive of scheduled stage 2 load shedding which has been extended to Tuesday morning.
On Saturday, Eskom announced the return of power cuts following unforeseen breakdowns from its ageing and unreliable infrastructure.
With the blackouts initially expected to last until Monday morning, Eskom on Sunday announced that, following the loss of the Koeberg unit 1, power cuts would resume between 9 pm and 5 am on Monday and Tuesday.
In a statement, the City of Johannesburg says it rejects Eskom’s latest scheduled load shedding after it secured additional power supply capacity from the privately-owned Kelvin Power Station that qualifies it for an exemption from stages 1 and 2 of load shedding.
Johannesburg Executive Mayor Mpho Moerane, described Eskom’s planned load shedding in the City as “an unwarranted decision that cannot be left unchallenged on behalf of the people of Johannesburg”.
“When the City first reached out to Eskom to indicate our additional supply capacity, we were asked for proof in this regard, which we accordingly presented. However, the City never heard from Eskom thereafter until the announcement of the latest scheduled load shedding. It looks like Eskom has no intention of serving the people of Johannesburg better after we as a municipality have done everything within our reach to ensure security of power supply.”
Moerane says the city of Johannesburg assisted Eskom after the power utility claimed it had left some mini substations and transformers unrepaired for months in mostly poor communities in Johannesburg because it was out of stock.
“If how Eskom treats the City is anything to go by, then it is understandable why Johannesburg residents have so many complaints about the national utility’s customer service. Therefore, the City is now prepared to go the legal route to halt Eskom’s blanket heavy-handedness against the people of Johannesburg, especially those whose Eskom accounts are up to date.”
Eskom implemented stage 2 load shedding this month for the first time since 22nd July 2021.
