New year, same old load-shedding? Eskom allays fears of pending blackouts

Power utility Eskom was flooded with questions about whether it plans to implement load-shedding after it said on Thursday its system was under pressure.

Eskom urged South Africans to switch off all non-essential power appliances. 

“Our power system is under severe pressure. Please switch off all unnecessary lights, your geyser, pool pump and non-essential appliances,” said the power utility. 

The Twitter post resulted in questions about whether load-shedding would soon be implemented.

Some expressed frustration, saying they were experiencing power outages in their areas.

The power utility, however, told TimesLIVE the announcement was for load reduction on Thursday and not an indicator of imminent load-shedding.

"Should there be any changes to the grid, Eskom will communicate this timeously," it added.

It said load reduction affected high-density areas and was implemented to avoid network overload. 

Eskom released schedules for load reduction which will affect provinces including Gauteng, North West and KwaZulu-Natal.

Here are some responses from Twitter: