'Another weekend special provided by Eskom' — South Africans react to stage 5 load-shedding

South Africans have again flooded social media in anger and frustration at Eskom, after the power utility announced stage 5 load-shedding on Wednesday.

The country had been battling stage 3 and 4 load-shedding before the announcement that the breakdown of a generating unit each at Camden, Kendal, Lethabo and Majuba power stations had ramped up the restrictions.

“During the same time the return to service of a generating unit each at Matla and Tutuka power stations has been delayed. Two generating units at Kriel, a unit each at Majuba and Tutuka power stations, have been returned to service.”

Stage 5 load-shedding will run from Thursday morning until Saturday morning.

Stage 4 will kick in from 5am until 4pm on Saturday and Sunday, and increase to stage 5 between 4pm and 5am on both days.

“Load-shedding” and “stage 5" both dominated the Twitter trends list, as gatvol South Africans questioned the breakdown of the units and lambasted the power utility.

Stage 5 pic.twitter.com/sXbTnAkeTT
— Getrude Getrude (@GetrudeGetrud11) January 26, 2023

#Loadshedding
Eskom: due to the breakdown of generating units at Camden, Kendal, Lethabo and Majuba power station..

Camden, Kendal, Lethabo & Majuba: pic.twitter.com/UOW4MyVdGb
— King of the Andals and First men. (@mcgates24) January 25, 2023

They differ on capacity for example matimba produce 550 mega watts per unit while medupi produce around 794 mega watts per unit, you get my point
— Cybercenter (@sql_cybercenter) January 25, 2023

here we go again, another wknd special provided by @Eskom_SA pic.twitter.com/xVL0slqZ7a
— Sammy82 (@craigsampson25) January 25, 2023

So we go back to stage 5 and complain but you all will still vote for a failed government come election time. Then complain for another 4 years. Foeseg
— MrWubson (@MrWubson) January 25, 2023

Cool👍
Please ensure businesses and homes receive some sort of financial support going forward. @CyrilRamaphosa we will wait for feedback as to how we can claim for our losses!!!!!
— Prashna Vallabh (@PrashnaV) January 25, 2023

More loadshedding since September, over 5 months than we've had in the last 10 years combined.

2022 and 2023 alone make up 4371 hours of loadshedding.

It wouldn't take me 4371 hours to solve the energy crisis. What's your excuse? pic.twitter.com/hOgGcdWDKc
— NebirosVT (@NebirosVT) January 25, 2023

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