Eskom: This is nothing

There was no crisis at Eskom, CEO Tshediso Matona said yesterday after the worst bout of load-shedding since 2008.

Matona bemoaned what he called "a psychosis of complete darkness".

"When your power is being cut, you think all of the country is in darkness," he said.

Matona and his management team were at great pains to explain in a briefing yesterday why the media should not refer to load-shedding as "blackouts".

Group executive Steve Lennon said a blackout would mean the collapse of the entire national electric-power distribution system, from which it could take the country three weeks to recover.

"When we start to go into blackouts, then we're in a crisis."

Matona said Eskom was beset by a "whole range of issues", but for each of them "we have a plan".

"I think that we have pretty much managed to handle the situation okay," said Matona of the power cuts of last week and at the weekend.