• Eskom has said it lost a total of 956MW of capacity and while 1 300MW has returned to the grid, there is still a need to ramp up loadshedding.
• Until Saturday morning, loadshedding will rotate from Stage 4 between 05:00 and 20:00 and Stage 6 from 20:00 to 05:00.
• Johannesburg residents may face more frequent loadshedding blocks as a result of the higher level of loadshedding.

The energy crisis is only getting worse with Eskom announcing on Tuesday afternoon that Stage 6 loadshedding would now be in effect overnight.

The ailing power utility which is about to spend who-knows how much on a corporate identity rebrand announced this afternoon that in order to replenish emergency reserves, Stage 6 loadshedding would need to be implemented from 20:00 to 05:00 every day until Saturday morning. From 05:00 to 20:00. Stage 4 loadshedding will be in effect but this could change at any moment.

“Unplanned outages increased by 401 MW to 15 825MW, whilst planned maintenance increased by 555 MW to 6 835MW of generation capacity. 1300 MW of generation capacity was returned to service in the last 24 hours,” Eskom told South Africans via X, formerly Twitter.

This comes on the back of a weekend with Stage 6 loadshedding and Stage 4 loadshedding throughout the week. Clearly, this wasn’t enough and now higher levels of loadshedding are on the cards.

South Africans should prepare for a long, dark December as loadshedding is expected to be a stable feature throughout the festive season, despite Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa saying that loadshedding would be lower in December due to lower demand.

The upgrade to Stage 6 is especially bad news for Johannesburg residents who have to contend with more frequent loadshedding blocks and a meagre one and a half to two hour break between power outages.

If you’re as fed up with loadshedding and a constant stream of excuses as we are, we urge our readers to register to vote ahead of next year’s elections.