Eskom anticipates no load-shedding - for now

After a week of rolling blackouts, Eskom said on Monday that it anticipated no load-shedding this week.

The power utility's spokesperson, Khulu Phasiwe, told TimesLIVE: "No load-shedding is anticipated for the whole week."

Some suburbs in Johannesburg, however, experienced power cuts on Monday due to issues such as cable faults.

The Sunday Times reported that police and intelligence officers would be deployed to Eskom power stations to protect them from possible sabotage as government moved to implement a rescue plan to enable the power utility to keep the lights on.

The multi-pronged emergency plan included preventing any possible acts of sabotage to the electricity supply by those linked to state capture.

Following the failure of seven generating units which caused nationwide blackouts last week, suspicion mounted that the power crisis had been deliberately created to undermine President Cyril Ramaphosa's plans to change Eskom's structure and business model and to root out corrupt networks.

A senior government source told the Sunday Times they had detected a "well-infiltrated, well-organised and well-resourced fightback" against the Ramaphosa administration "with antennae that reach all over".

Ramaphosa told the Sunday Times: "It could well be that there are remnants of state capture at Eskom. [But] we are more empowered to investigate and to follow up and ensure accountability."

Finance minister Tito Mboweni will announce the financial rescue plan for Eskom in his budget speech on Wednesday.

Public enterprises acting director-general Thuto Shomang told MPs that Eskom's R420bn debt burden represented 15% of the sovereign's debt and that if the power utility defaulted on its debt, it would threaten the economy.