Eskom implemented stage 6 load-shedding for the first time since 2019 in June 2022. Since then South Africans have had to adapt and organise their lives around load-shedding, which in the past year was an almost daily occurrence.
This explains why, after a month and two days of no load-shedding, we still cannot shake the anxiety that any moment the EskomSePush app will light up to tell us the lights are going off again.
Despite our valid mistrust in Eskom, it is important to recognise that power has not suddenly and sinisterly been restored in the run-up to the May 29 general elections through drastic maintenance cuts and burning more diesel, as some opposition parties want us to believe.
The work started in earnest when President Cyril Ramaphosa presented the action plan to end load-shedding in July 2022. This was shortly after the return to stage 6 load-shedding, and it was probably also around that time the ANC realised the electricity crisis might cost it the elections.
Since then, Eskom has received a R254bn bailout, allowing it to implement a proper maintenance plan that is starting to bear fruit. In addition, and thanks to regulatory reforms, renewable energy installations have boomed, resulting in less demand for Eskom’s power.
A combination of these factors has contributed to Eskom being able to predict fewer and lower stages of load-shedding during winter than it did a year ago.
We might have load-shedding the day after the elections. We might have load-shedding tomorrow. Eskom is far from fixed, and the generation system is still unreliable. But it is undeniable that some progress has been made.
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