Joburg City Power retracts announcement that customers will be load-shed for just two hours a day

Joburg City Power has made an about-turn on a statement issued on Thursday afternoon announcing plans to roll out a highly reduced load-shedding schedule to customers and businesses serviced by the entity.

The entity in a brief statement, issued four hours after the first one, said: “City Power would like to retract the recent media statement sent earlier today [Thursday] regarding the implementation of its revised load-shedding schedule which is intended to reduce the frequency of blackouts and ensure minimal disruption to our customers. 

“The media statement was a working draft that was sent erroneously. The correct final statement will be released tomorrow [Friday] after consultations with other stakeholders have been completed.”

The erroneous statement announced that City Power had unveiled a plan that will see areas it serves getting power cuts for a maximum of two hours out of 24, during stages 1-7 of load-shedding.

Its spokesperson Isaac Mangena said in the statement: “City Power’s 2hr-once-off new load-shedding schedule plan can be implemented until Stage 7 load-shedding, with minor additions to load-shedding hours per day when we hit Stage 8 and beyond. City Power’s mission is to meet the expectation of its customers by providing a sustainable, affordable, safe and reliable energy supply and keeping the lights on.”

He has since “profusely apologised for the error”.

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