Load shedding made an unwelcome return on 2 January, after an 18 day reprieve over the festive season, and the DA says power cuts could hit South Africans even harder this year.

Eskom says with the current intensified maintenance aimed at improving the fleet performance, they experienced a setback of three generating units (2 148MW) not coming back online as anticipated.

This coupled with a loss of six generating units (3 113MW), and projected increase in
electricity demand, required load shedding to be implemented, according to the power utility.

The DA says the return of load shedding, barely as the New Year commences, is an omen that the power crisis may hit businesses, workers and consumers even harder over the coming year than ever before.

”Decades of ANC corruption and mismanagement are the root causes of the collapse of our electricity system and the associated explosion in unemployment and hardship. The ANC sits at the heart of every crisis we face – from load shedding to unemployment, to the cost of living and shocking rates of violent crime. None of these problems will be solved while the ANC retains its majority in Parliament.”

The party says with the election just a few months away, it is the people of South Africa who hold the power to rescue the country from load shedding once and for all, by voting the ANC out of power.