Eskom Announces Stage 2 Loadshedding, South Africans Furious

• State-owned entity Eskom announced that the country would be plunged into Stage 2 Loadshedding
• Eskom said the rolling blackouts are expected to start at 16:00 on 13 May 2025 and will continue until 22:00 on 15 May
• South Africans joked that the 49 Afrikaners who left the country were supposed to ease the pressure off the grid

Tebogo Mokwena, Briefly News's current affairs journalist, offered coverage of current affairs like food, energy, loadshedding, fuel prices and environmental affairs during his seven years at Daily Sun and Vutivi Business News.

JOHANNESBURG — Eskom threw South Africans into fits of anger as it announced loadshedding for three days from 13 May to 15 May 2025.

Why is there loadshedding?

Eskom posted a statement on its @Eskom_SA X account. the power utility said the power will go out between 16:00 and 22:00. This is because it wants to manage the limited generation capacity and continued supply during the working days.

Eskom said the decision was taken because it lost 1,385MW of capacity in the last 24 hours due to unplanned breakdowns. Eskom also experienced a delayed return of power, amounting to 3,120 MW of capacity. This means that Eskom has lost over 13,000MW in capacity.

The utility remarked that it is emerging from an intensive maintenance cycle, and this means the grid is sensitive to unexpected disruptions. Eskom said it is committed to supplying reliable electricity.

"We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this causes. Our teams continue to work with determination and professionalism to stabilise and strengthen the system as a result of the structural improvements across the generation fleet," Eskom said.

Eskom's CEO, Dan Marokane, pledged that the SOE is determined to build on the progress it achieved. He noted that Eskom is reinforcing oversight, strengthening accountability and aligning service providers with stricter performance standards. He also said Eskom's generational capacity in the winter has improved.

Eskom implemented Stage 2 loadshedding on 24 April, and many South Africans believed that it was because Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana scrapped the VAT increase.

Read the X statement here:

What did South Africans say?

Netizens commenting on Eskom's tweet joked that they thought that there would be more electricity after 49 Afrikaners left South Africa and emigrated to the United States on 11 May.

Sanizwe said:

"We just lost 49 people. Surely we should have more electricity. Come on, Eskom."

Sage said:

"We should have access to more electricity. We have 49 refugees who left."

Oracle said:

"49 Afrikaners left, and this means that there is excess electricity for everyone. Stop playing games with us."

NL_Sesh said:

"We've been dealing with power cuts called load reduction. It's nothing new for us."

Thabo Hadebe asked:

"Did they take some units with them to the US?"

City Power fires employees involved in illegal connections

In a related article, Briefly News reported that five employees were fired for their roles in providing illegal connections in Johannesburg. This came after it launched an internal investigation.

The utility found that it lost more than R3 billion to illegal connections and instituted disciplinary proceedings against them. Criminal cases have also been opened against them.

Source: Briefly News