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SA’s public enterprises minister exaggerates load shedding statistic

Published on 15 November 2016
This article is more than 7 years old

Power lines leaving the Eskom Duvha Power Station, some 15km east of Witbank, in the coal rich Witbank region of South Africa. Photo: Marco Longari/AFP Power lines leaving the Eskom Duvha Power Station. Photo: Marco Longari/AFP

South Africa’s power utility Eskom has seen a number of improvements in performance, according to minister of public enterprises Lynne Brown. Among them is an absence of planned electricity blackouts to manage supply and demand - commonly known as load shedding.

The country has experienced “460 days without load shedding”, Brown claimed in a statement following the resignation of Eskom’s CEO, Brian Molefe.

But the statistic is an exaggeration. Load shedding last occurred on 14 September 2015 for 2 hours and 20 minutes, according to the power utility. This means South Africa had been free of load shedding for 425 days on the day Brown made the claim, 11 November 2016. - 15/11/2016

 

Additional reading

President Zuma: “There has been no load-shedding since August last year.”

Does South Africa face an electricity grid collapse?

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