Cape Town downgrades load shedding to stage 1

Cape Town – The City of Cape Town downgraded the nation-wide stage 2 load shedding to stage 1 for its customers on Sunday due to extra power being generated for the city.

That effectively means less load shedding for its residents, depending on their load shedding schedule.

“The extra power is generated by the Steenbras Dam pumped storage scheme,” the City of Cape Town said in a tweet, adding it would load shed until 22:00.

Eskom said on Sunday morning that it is implementing stage 2 load shedding from 08:00 to 22:00 due to the power system being under pressure.

Download News24's load shedding planner app: GridWatch

In Johannesburg, residents were frustrated by poor communication coming from City Power.

In a tweet, City Power said: “We apologise for the confusion concerning the (load shedding) blocks, that will be attended to for some corrections.”

The apology was not taken well by most residents, such as Boitumelo Mothoagae, who tweeted: “Your service levels really are substandard. Do you even care what havoc you cause?”

“Why did you change the blocks in the first place,” asked Tarryn C. “Everything was always according to schedule. Sort it out!"

@CityPowerJhb @CityofJoburgZA just stop fiddling with the schedules!?? We are trying to plan our lives, and you are not making it easy.

— Morne Jonker (@mornejonker) July 26, 2015