The possibility of sabotage has been dismissed as power outages in South Africa escalate
South Africa's Minister of Electricity, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, has dismissed allegations of sabotage as the cause of the country's escalating power outages.
Since last Wednesday, South Africa has been grappling with severe power cuts, marking the most significant outage since November, sparking widespread criticism on social media.
On Saturday, Fikile Mbalula, the secretary general of the ruling ANC party, suggested that the heightened power cuts were a result of deliberate sabotage and urged for increased security measures.
However, Ramokgopa refuted these claims on Sunday, attributing the extreme power outages to leaking boiler tubes used in power plant electricity generation.
According to the electricity minister, these leakages led to the simultaneous failure of nine major power units. While two units have since resumed operations, resulting in a downgrade of power cuts by one level, the remaining seven units are expected to come back online early this week.
Ramokgopa further stated that significant relief from load-shedding is anticipated in March when additional power units are incorporated into the grid.
South Africa has been grappling with power blackouts, known as load-shedding, for several years, with many residents enduring up to six hours of power cuts per day.
The recent surge in power cuts comes shortly after President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed optimism about the imminent end of load shedding.
Since last Wednesday, South Africa has been grappling with severe power cuts, marking the most significant outage since November, sparking widespread criticism on social media.
On Saturday, Fikile Mbalula, the secretary general of the ruling ANC party, suggested that the heightened power cuts were a result of deliberate sabotage and urged for increased security measures.
However, Ramokgopa refuted these claims on Sunday, attributing the extreme power outages to leaking boiler tubes used in power plant electricity generation.
According to the electricity minister, these leakages led to the simultaneous failure of nine major power units. While two units have since resumed operations, resulting in a downgrade of power cuts by one level, the remaining seven units are expected to come back online early this week.
Ramokgopa further stated that significant relief from load-shedding is anticipated in March when additional power units are incorporated into the grid.
South Africa has been grappling with power blackouts, known as load-shedding, for several years, with many residents enduring up to six hours of power cuts per day.
The recent surge in power cuts comes shortly after President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed optimism about the imminent end of load shedding.
