Nationwide rolling blackouts start today for at least a week

Eskom will start rolling blackouts countrywide on Sunday due to a loss of capacity at its Majuba power station in Mpumalanga, it said.

A crack in a coal storage silo on Saturday afternoon caused the loss of 1800MW, it said in a statement.

The power shortage was expected to last the entire week and blackouts would happen between 8am and 10pm.

The silo, which stores over 10,000 tons of coal, cracked on Saturday afternoon. This affected coal supplies to all six units at the power station. It was generating 1300MW.

"Teams are in the process of dispatching mobile coal feeders to site. In the unlikely event that this contingency is unsuccessful, it may impact the full supply from the power station," the organisation said.

Eskom engineers were investigating the cause of the crack. Power outage schedules were available on Eskom's website.