Johannesburg – Power utility Eskom said on Friday load-shedding would be suspended from 12pm to 5pm on Friday, but continue over the weekend, to allow Parliament to conduct virtual sittings.
Stage 2 load-shedding was scheduled to continue until Friday night, but the utility said Parliament had requested the suspension to pass a series of appropriation bills, which authorise the spending of state funds.
“Passing these bills is essential to keeping government operating, as without the relevant appropriations there will be no funding for key state functions, such as hospitals, law enforcement and other essential services,” said Eskom.
Load-shedding will continue until Sunday at 10pm.
Eskom said a number of large industrial power consumers had agreed to reduce their consumption over the period, without naming them, but added it expected to utilise its emergency reserves built up over the past few days.
