Rotational rolling blackouts resumed on Thursday as Eskom technicians attended to breakdowns at several of its generating units in SA.
Stage 2 load-shedding started at 9am and was expected to last until 10pm.
While consumers and business owners lamented the ongoing power cuts - and the reasons behind them - the Middelburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry wanted to know why coal was not being collected at Mpumalanga mines.
"There is no shortage of coal‚ there are about 170 coal mines that are being mined right now. There is enough coal‚" the chamber's CEO Anna-Marth Ott said on Thursday.
Ott said workers had informed her that coal was piling up at the mines. She said there were 170 coal mines within a 200km radius of Middelburg.
"Some of the workers are complaining that they are not getting their performance bonuses because the coal is not being collected by Eskom‚" she told TimesLIVE.
"We barely survived the previous load-shedding. We would like to get this problem solved‚" she said.
Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe admitted on Thursday that there was a shortage of coal‚ but stressed that it was not the main reason for load-shedding.
"We are having load-shedding because there is not enough generating capacity. We didn't say anything about coal. Some people have their agendas‚" said Phasiwe.
He said a number of generating units were still out of service due to breakdowns...