South Africans are calling for heads to roll following Eskom’s emergency media briefing on Tuesday morning.
The country’s embattled power utility moved load shedding to stage 6, for the second time since the rolling blackouts were implemented.
Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter said at the briefing that Eskom would probably be forced to implement Stage 6 load shedding because unlawful and unprotected labour action at a number of power stations had caused delays in carrying out planned maintenance and repairs.
In essence, Stage 6 load shedding means that South Africans could experience up to 10 hours of power cuts in a day.
Following this announcement, some of the country’s top CEOs and analysts took to Twitter to further criticise Eskom, as well as the government.
Mike Abel, CEO of advertising agency M&C Saatchi Abel, said in a tweet, “There is a hard and direct line between power supply and employment. Anyone who thinks it’s a dotted line is seriously mistaken. Power supply = job stability and growth. Poor or unreliable power supply = increased unemployment. The end.”
There is a hard and direct line between power supply and employment. Anyone who thinks it’s a dotted line is seriously mistaken. Power supply = job stability & growth. Poor or unreliable power supply = increased unemployment.
— Mike Abel (@abelmike) June 28, 2022
The end.
Take a look at how others reacted to Eskom’s announcement below:
And with the amount of substations blowing up in the past 24-48 hrs, things are get worse
— Nicolette Bailey (@NicoletteBailey) June 28, 2022
Stage 6 means 8 hours in a day without electricity.
— Entrepreneur Zone (@SayEntrepreneur) June 28, 2022
The current leadership at Eskom has failed including our President and his cabinet.
We have capable leaders who ended loadshedding sitting at home.
🇿🇦We’ll easily raise the capital for alternative, new energy installation internationally, as long as government doesn’t insist on controlling it🇿🇦
— Mark Barnes (@mark_barnes56) June 28, 2022
With electricity demand at 34 426 MW and load shedding at 4760 MW, we are actually into Stage 5. Please can you confirm, @SikonathiM? https://t.co/I5qZMEsX3K
— Chris Yelland (@chrisyelland) June 28, 2022
The eskom strikers shouldn't only be sacked, but arrested and prosecuted too. Call it treason, call it terrorism, whatever... #stage4 #stage6 #stage8 #Loadshedding
— Ian Cameron (@IanCameron23) June 28, 2022
For me the worst thing about this Eskom mess is that there’s no clearly articulated plan on how we’ll come back from this. Or is this the moment privatisation gets formalised? #Eskom
— Kgomotso Moeketsi (@KGMoeketsi) June 28, 2022
Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer says he believes that if the strike action continues, we could go up to Stage 8 #Loadsheddinghttps://t.co/VKH5G72dEi
— Kailene Pillay (@kailenepillay) June 28, 2022
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