A wrap of all the chaos as Zuma, stage 6 load-shedding & Ramaphosa trend
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As SA is plunged into darkness, social media is up in arms as Mzansi looks for answers. Twitter has had lots to say about President Cyril Ramaphosa, former president Jacob Zuma and load-shedding.
Here's a wrap and an update from Eskom.
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Load-shedding
Eskom announced it would be imposing power cuts on Thursday, due to constraints which resulted in a breakdown. At the time, the power utility said unplanned breakdowns were at 12,300MW.
This quickly escalated to the highest load-shedding stage ever implemented, stage 6. Eskom announced this on Monday, but said “it was no cause for alarm.”
It attributed stage 6 to heavy rains and breakdowns at Medupi power station. This saw South Africans endure longer blackouts more often. On Tuesday afternoon, Eskom downgraded power cuts to stage 2.
We regret and sincerely apologise that stage 4 loadshedding will move to Stage 6 loadshedding as from 18:00 today, as a result of a shortage of capacity. This follows a technical problem at Medupi Power Station impacting additional generation supply. https://t.co/Nxo0ltbuee pic.twitter.com/YXdfI0PzrM
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) December 9, 2019
Jacob Zuma's promise
Since the unprecedented power cuts, South Africans have looked to Zuma for answers.
A clip of the former president saying Mzansi would never be load-shed again went viral as those on social media sought answers.
— Helen Zille (@helenzille) December 10, 2019
The situation quickly got messy, with opinions on whether Zuma was to blame for load-shedding.
Ok guys we have a president in Cyril Ramaphosa why can't he do his job and stop blaming the past 9 years government of which he was part of even though he run away and come the on and off type of person.
— Dieu est grand (@thembazoko) December 10, 2019
We had Jacob Zuma but zuma never blamed Mbeki abd Mandela
Damn you Jacob Zuma!!! Stage 6 wonke. pic.twitter.com/UZIgqmFzqw
— Naledi X (@NahLayDay) December 9, 2019
#Loadshedding Stage 6
— Sanele Ngubane (@NeleSanza) December 10, 2019
Jacob Zuma & The Gupta’s abakaze basbolisele inyama ye Stokfela 🤞🏽 Lamasimba nje babengawenzi ✋🏽
Ugesi ilokhu uhambe izolo ngo 6 namanje lutho ukubuya, asisazi noma uhambile or uphelile 🤷🏿♂️😂 pic.twitter.com/RYEzIBlYrb
Is Ramaphosa 'fixing' the mess?
President Ramaphosa has faced some hard questions regarding his plan to deal with the crisis at Eskom.
When Jacob Zuma was still president he set up an IMTT on the Eskom issue and he appointed YOU to chair that TT. That was in 2017 and you're telling me 2 weeks ago was the first time ever you visited the troubled Medupi???
— Oliver Dickson (@Oliver_Speaking) December 9, 2019
Bro! Do you even know what you're doing??? https://t.co/VrKjDcsGWG
On Tuesday, he cut short a two-day trip to Egypt amid public outcry that he must attend to the Eskom crisis, TimesLIVE reported.
My problem with Ramaphosa cutting short his trip to Egypt because of the rolling power cuts is the false expectation created that suggests there’s actually something he will do or instruct others to do that can save us from this mess.
— Theto Mahlakoana (@ThetoThakane) December 10, 2019
So now that Ramaphosa is returning from Egypt that he shouldn’t have gone to last night, are we expected to clap?
— Tumi Sole (@tumisole) December 10, 2019
Surely he saw the displeasure prior to departing! pic.twitter.com/fd5shvaGKF
Everyone is this country knew we were on stage 6 yesterday accept @CyrilRamaphosa,apparently. He only heard when he was out of the country. 😂😂@MYANC @LandNoli @_AfricanSoil @EFFSouthAfrica @eNCA
— Black Consciousness (@Afrikan_Dream) December 10, 2019
Ramaphosa has cut his trip to Egypt just to say "I'm shocked". pic.twitter.com/qH20nonLn3
— Cand'Ziziba (@tru_wongazee) December 10, 2019
Ramaphosa left for Egypt when there was loadshedding, got to Egypt and decided to come back to deal with loadshedding. #loadsheddingstage6 pic.twitter.com/mP6qgXVJkI
— K U L A N I (@kulanicool) December 10, 2019
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Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 