Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa
By Nkosana Khumalo
Pretoria, South Africa – 23 February 2025 – Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has dismissed rumours of sabotage at Eskom, insisting that the current stage 6 loadshedding is purely a “technical issue.” Speaking at a media briefing on Sunday, just hours after Eskom escalated power cuts from stage 3 to stage 6, Ramokgopa assured South Africans that this setback is temporary and the country should be out of this “difficult” situation by the end of the week. The sudden return of load shedding, after 10 months of stable power, stems from multiple unit failures at Majuba, Camden, and Medupi power stations, coupled with an aggressive maintenance plan aimed at securing long-term reliability.
Introduction: A Surprise Return to Darkness
South Africans woke up to a harsh reality on Sunday morning—stage 6 load shedding was back. After nearly a year of uninterrupted electricity, the power utility Eskom announced the escalation from stage 3, implemented on Saturday, to stage 6 in the early hours of Sunday. The move followed a series of unit trips at key power stations, wiping out thousands of megawatts of generation capacity. At a media briefing in Pretoria, Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa faced the nation alongside Eskom CEO Dan Marokane and board chair Mteto Nyati, tackling concerns head-on.
Ramokgopa was firm: “There is no sabotage based on what is before us, we can explain what went wrong and it is something that we are addressing.” He promised that by week’s end, the lights would stay on again, calling the current crisis “momentary, not permanent.” But with businesses reeling and households scrambling for candles, the minister’s words are being put to the test. Here’s what happened, why it matters, and what’s next for South Africa’s shaky power grid.
What Triggered Stage 6? A Technical Breakdown
The road to stage 6 began on Saturday when Eskom lost 3,000 megawatts “at a go,” as Ramokgopa put it, due to an overload on a transformer at Majuba Power Station. Five units tripped there, plunging the grid into chaos. Marokane explained that this coincided with a separate trip at Medupi Power Station, caused by “under frequency with the network.” This double blow forced Eskom to implement stage 3 load shedding to protect reserves and stabilise demand.
But the situation worsened overnight. At 1:30am on Sunday, Camden Power Station lost four units due to a hydraulic valve failure, pushing Eskom to escalate to stage 6. “We had to run the reserves much harder,” Marokane said, noting that the utility had no choice but to deepen the cuts to replenish emergency reserves ahead of the workweek. By Sunday morning, 7,506 MW was offline for planned maintenance, while the tripped units accounted for another 3,864 MW loss—a total of over 11,000 MW out of action.
Posts on X captured the unfolding drama. @BafanaSurprise tweeted, “Blackouts are rolling out across South Africa, since Eskom implemented load shedding stage 6 in the early hours of the morning (01:30).” Meanwhile, @dailyintake2023 warned, “Power crisis deepens! South Africa hits Stage 6 load shedding as generation units fail,” reflecting public alarm.
No Sabotage, Just Technical Glitches
As speculation swirled about foul play, Ramokgopa was quick to shut it down. “The evidence before us is that this is a technical issue,” he stressed. “I am making this point because we must not find any reasons to manufacture explanations of why we are at stage 6 and point fingers somewhere else.” He reiterated, “There is no sabotage based on what is before us, we can explain what went wrong and it is something that we are addressing.”
This stance echoed across the briefing. Marokane backed it up, detailing the mechanical failures at Majuba, Medupi, and Camden. “We do understand how it happened,” he said, ruling out any conspiracy. X user @rhulani1baloyi noted, “Minister #Ramokgopa says they’ve ruled out sabotage but they take full responsibility and accountability for the #stage6 #loadshedding,” summing up the official line.
The minister’s dismissal of sabotage claims aligns with past statements. In September 2023, during another stage 6 bout, he told News24, “There is no shortcut to ending load shedding,” pinning the blame on technical challenges rather than malice. This time, he doubled down, urging South Africans to trust Eskom’s transparency.
Aggressive Maintenance: Short-Term Pain, Long-Term Gain
At the heart of this crisis lies Eskom’s “aggressive maintenance” strategy, a cornerstone of its generation recovery plan. Ramokgopa explained, “We are guided by the generation recovery plan, which places front-centre investments on the installed fleet, ensuring we have these machines reliable.” This means taking more units offline for repairs—7,506 MW as of Sunday—than in recent years.
“Our planned maintenance is sitting at 7,500 MW, which is significantly higher than the same period last year,” he said. “We have accepted that there are inherent risks in this decision that we have taken.” The trade-off? Occasional power cuts now to avoid “catastrophic” failures later. “We can be a bit conservative, but we will place a number of units at risk,” he warned. “When they fail, the failure might be catastrophic and require us to make even significantly greater decisions to protect the grid.”
This approach isn’t new. In February 2024, Ramokgopa told IOL that stage 6 then was also tied to maintenance, promising it would “ease down by Wednesday.” It did, and South Africa enjoyed 10 months load shedding-free until January 2025. “This is what I call short-term pain, long-term gain,” he said on Sunday. “We cannot postpone the maintenance of these assets.”
Eskom’s Response: Units Back Online
Despite the grim start to Sunday, there’s light at the tunnel’s end. Marokane reported that six of the 10 tripped units were back online by Sunday morning—two at Majuba, one at Camden, and others undisclosed. “Both Majuba and Camden have done very well… up to the point the incidents happened,” he said. Eskom aims to restore the rest by Tuesday, with Ramokgopa confident that “by the end of the week, we should be out of this difficult situation.”
Eskom’s head of generation, Bheki Nxumalo, added detail during the Q&A. At Majuba, “unit 1 supplied itself and other auxiliaries at the station,” he said. When it tripped, cooling pumps failed, causing a domino effect. “With the incident, there was a loss of cooling pumps, then other units tripped due to a lack of air.” Fixes are underway, with “priority” on exiting stage 6 by week’s end.
The timeline hinges on the 8pm peak on Sunday. “We should be able to take a view of stepping down to a lower stage from stage 6 on Monday,” Marokane said. “The first 3 days of this week are very important.” Nxumalo echoed this, saying, “We understand that there will be setbacks. Let’s learn from those setbacks.”
A Look Back: 10 Months of Power Stability
The return of load shedding stings all the more after South Africa’s longest stretch without cuts in years. From March 2024 to January 2025, Eskom delivered 10 months of uninterrupted power—a feat Nyati called “not a miracle, but a product of the work we were doing.” Speaking on Sunday, he outlined three pillars of this success: appointing capable leaders like Nxumalo, returning to “back to basics” operations, and enforcing discipline.
“We were confident it was something we can overcome,” Nyati said. “We are dealing with people, and with machines, and they are within our control.” Yet, the weekend’s events show that even a solid plan can falter. Ramokgopa admitted, “This is why I have not been able to make that absolute statement [that load shedding is over].”
Last month’s brief cuts, which ended quickly, were also dubbed a “temporary setback” by Marokane. Now, he’s repeating that refrain, banking on structural improvements to pull through again. “We continue to be on the right path in ensuring that we eradicate load shedding,” Ramokgopa said. “We apologise for this setback and its intensity because we have not experienced this in a long time.”
The Human Cost: South Africans Feel the Pinch
Beyond the technical jargon, stage 6 load shedding hits hard. Businesses lose hours of productivity, schools scramble to adjust, and families dig out candles and gas stoves. The economic toll is steep—Stats SA pegged load shedding’s GDP drag at 2.1% in 2023, a figure likely to rise with each new outage.
On X, @AugustusConsult shared a News24 link, stating, “South Africa: Load shedding escalates to Stage 6 until further notice,” while @KayaNews quoted Ramokgopa’s briefing: “Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says the implementation of #Stage6 load shedding has nothing to do with sabotage.” The sentiment online is a mix of frustration and cautious hope, with many clinging to the promise of relief by Friday.
In Johannesburg, the briefing also touched on the city’s billing disputes with Eskom. Ramokgopa said the South African National Energy Development Institute (Sanedi) is mediating between Eskom and City Power. “It revealed other significant areas of attention,” he noted, hinting at broader systemic fixes in the works.
What’s Next? A Week of Watching and Waiting
Ramokgopa’s optimism hinges on a swift recovery. “I am confident we are going to have another run [of no load shedding]… watch this space,” he said, wrapping up the briefing. But the week ahead will test that confidence. Koeberg Unit 1, offline for a 150-day outage, and a Kusile unit taken out on Saturday for stack upgrades, add pressure—over 1,600 MW and 800 MW respectively are sidelined.
“We said we are not going to do shortcuts in our obligations to the environment,” Ramokgopa said, referencing Kusile’s temporary stacks and air quality efforts. These moves, while noble, stretch Eskom thin. Yet, he insisted, “The quickest path out of load shedding is to ensure that we get Eskom right.”
Marokane’s forecast offers a glimmer of hope: lower stages by Monday, normalcy by Friday. “We regret this setback, in the same manner that we regret the setback on the first of February,” Ramokgopa said, referencing last month’s cuts. “It is a very difficult period, but we are going to get to a place where load shedding is behind us.”
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