Addressing the
media on Sunday morning in Pretoria, Gauteng Ramokgopa said: "Please
accept our sincerest apologies. With the greatest level of humility, I want to
say to the country that we regret that there is a setback."
Eskom announced
that Stage 6 load shedding would continue on Sunday due to multiple trips at
Camden Power Station. The national power utility said Stage 6 would continue
until further notice.
He added that
the ministry is guided by the Energy Action Plan that the president unveiled to
the country in July of 2022.
"We
suffered a setback on February 1, 2025, after over 300 days of consecutive
supply of electricity and in uninterrupted fashion and again now. We are coming
back to you while we have another bout of load shedding which has a greater
intensity."
Ramakgopa went
on to say that five generation units were lost at Majuba power station which is
Eskom's second-largest power plant.
"This
resulted in us initiating Stage 3 load shedding to allow us to replenish the
reserves, to allow the team to understand what the root cause was at Majuba,
and have an appreciation of how long it will take for us to return those units.
"At about
1.30 am at Camden, we lost four units, which is another outlier...The
constellation of that resulted in us upping the levels of load shedding to
Stage 6. We have been able to record some successes in return of the
units," he said.
Ramakgopa
rubbished claims of sabotage at the stations. "I have heard several
queries regarding some underhand activities. I want to say to the rest of the
country; that this is a technical issue. We must not find any reason to
manufacture explanations of why we are at Stage 6. We are hoping to get back to
normal by the end of the week. There is no sabotage."
He added that
the ministry will work hard to do everything possible to curb load shedding
because it also affects the country financially.
"On the
agitation, anger, disappointment that the country is registering, we should not
accept load shedding at any Stage...We have made decisions that are in the
interest of the great...We understand the anger; we feel your pain; we can hear
your cries. We will resolve this problem," Ramakgopa said. IOL
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