South Africa will be saddled with Stage 6 load shedding over two days. Eskom has announced that the intensified power cuts will take place today and tomorrow between 4pm and 10pm. It will be accompanied with other lower stages of load shedding.

The power utility insists that this precautionary action is due to the unprotected labour action which it says has caused widespread disruption to its power plants.

At least six generation units tripped during the night. Three have since returned to service. But Eskom says it’s not enough to stave off the higher frequency of load shedding.

Planned maintenance stands at over 3200 MW while some 17 000 MW has been loss as a result of unit breakdowns.