Eskom CEO 'sorry' about load-shedding: 'Bear with us, we are working on this'

Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter has apologised for the current spate of load-shedding and said he is aware of the inconvenience this is causing.

In an interview with 702 on Thursday, De Ruyter attributed issues at the power utility to poor management and ageing infrastructure.

He said they are working hard at resolving the issues but “cannot perform miracles overnight”, as the maintenance of power stations goes as far back as 40 years.

“I apologise to the nation for the hardship that we continue to inflict as a result of load-shedding, but bear with us, we are working on this,” said De Ruyter.

He said the constant blackouts were not unexpected. 

“We're working hard at catching up on maintenance that has been deferred and postponed. When I assumed my role in January last year, we communicated that during the so-called reliability recovery programme there would be an increase in the risk of load-shedding while we do this maintenance,” he said. 

Eskom is implementing rotational stage 2 load-shedding until Friday. It said on Tuesday this was due to a breakdown of generating units at the Majuba and Arnot power stations. 

“The emergency generation reserves have been used extensively in the past days to avoid load-shedding during the day. This has resulted in these being depleted, reducing available capacity. It is, therefore, necessary to implement load-shedding continuously until Friday, 10pm, to replenish the emergency reserves,” Eskom said in a statement.  

Meanwhile, social media was filled with gatvol users slamming the power utility for the blackouts.