Load reduction persists in Gauteng. Photo: Beeld
Eskom has announced that it will carry out more load reduction in Gauteng between 5pm and 10pm on Sunday. The province has endured blackouts for approximately two weeks now as Eskom introduced load reduction – a localised form of load shedding – due to illegal connections and overloading which it feared may cause power outages.
“We are implementing load reduction from 17h00 – 22h00 to avoid network overloading in high-density areas that are prone to illegal connections, meter bypasses and vandalism of electricity infrastructure,” twitted Eskom.
Areas that are affected by Sunday night’s load reduction include:
Soweto: Dobsonville, Dube, Central Western Jabavu, Klipspruit, Meadowlands East Zone 1-5, Meadowlands West Zones 6-10, Mofolo Central, Mofolo North, Mofolo South, Orlando East and Orlando West.
Vaal: Boitumelo, Evaton Central, Evaton Small Farms, Evaton West, Sebokeng Units 8,12,14,16 and 19, Orange Farm, Dieziek and Poortje.
West Rand: Cosmo City and Zandspruit
Other parts of the country are also without power, but Eskom said this is due to weather conditions. In the Eastern Cape, strong winds caused blackouts in a number of towns around OR Tambo, Chris Hani, Amathole and Joe Gqabi districts. But Eskom said its technicians are working on restoring power. They are also working on fixing power outages in some areas in the Western Cape but have faced delays caused by the winds, heavy rain and very low temperatures.
Compiled by Londiwe Buthelezi