All you need to know about Eskom and its troubles

Eskom is implementing load-shedding up to stage four this week.
Image: Business Times

Eskom continues to dominate headlines after much of the country experiences stage 4 load-shedding, plunging the country into darkness.

How did South Africa get here? Load-shedding, power station troubles and alleged Gupta looting, here are must-read stories on Eskom.

Load-shedding

Eskom imposed power cuts last week at stage 1 and 2, escalating it to stage 4 at the weekend.

On Thursday, Eskom stated the power cuts were due to a faulty unit at its Kusile power plant which had tripped.

The power utility attributed stage 4 to loss of additional power generation units, including 900MW from Mozambican units due to cyclone Idai on Saturday.

On Sunday, Eskom announced load-shedding would continue at stage 4 from 9am to 11pm on Monday and Tuesday due to generation capacity constraints.

Gordhan speaks

Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan described load-shedding as “unacceptable and disruptive to our economy”.

Gordhan made his comment after a meeting with Eskom’s board and management on Saturday.

In the meeting, Gordhan and board members were briefed on supply shortages caused by issues with power supply and the quality of coal provided to Eskom, as well as diesel supply and the impact of cyclone Idai.

Guptas and Eskom

Controversial Gupta-linked company has again been cast into the spotlight after the Sunday Times reported it had more links to state capture.

In leaked documents, the paper reported that Trillian paid a minority shareholder in auditing company Nkonki to buy over 80% of shares in the auditing firm in 2016.

This was to “secure” more contracts with Transnet and Eskom, amongst others.