South Africa’s power utility has in a statement deemed the messages to be misleading and highly inaccurate. Eskom maintains that load shedding is controlled and managed on a schedule, occurring over a two to four hour period per rotation. 

The utility urges South Africans to check the load shedding schedules for their specific areas on the Eskom website, further warning residents to steer clear of unverified social media accounts that spread misinformation. 

On Tuesday, March 19, Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan held a press briefing on the Eskom crisis in a bid to provide insight, following days of stage 4 load shedding implemented by the utility due to a lack of available capacity.

Gordhan said the situation would improve in the “next year or two”, to much disdain from the public on social media. The Minister says he understands people’s concerns and frustrations, but at the same time appeals to “all of us to try to understand the nature of the challenges that we have have. The Eskom staff in particular, management and the board together with other government departments are doing the best they can under very difficult circumstances”.

Gordhan stresses that the crisis “is not symptomatic of governance issues”.

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