A lengthy period of load shedding has kicked in for South Africans.

Eskom supplied customers will need to contend with Stage 2 power cuts which will continue until 5am on Monday. But for households and businesses receiving their electricity from the City of Cape Town they will be on Stage 1 load shedding from now until ten this evening. Thereafter the municipality will shift to Stage 2 until 6am.

The City is expected to provide daily updates on whether it could cushion its customers from the rolling blackouts.

Meanwhile, Eskom has defended its latest bout of load shedding saying it is to prevent a catastrophic blackout.

Providing an update on the situation the power utility’s CEO Andre de Ruyter indicates that if there is a total blackout it would take up to three weeks to restart the system.

Generation unit breakdowns and a need to replenish emergency reserves have been cited as the reasons for the electricity shortage.

However, the energy situation comes as the energy regulator Nersa is set to make a final decision on Eskom’s application for a tariff hike of 20.5% which citizens have labelled as unjustified. A court had ordered that the decision be made by February 25th.