Photo by: Creamer Media
State power utility Eskom said it would apply rotational blackouts for a second day on Thursday, suppressing 2 000 MW of demand at any given time between 9 am and 11 pm to avoid overwhelming the strained national grid.
The powercuts have already affected ongoing national examinations for students finishing high school this year, education officials say.
Eskom said it would continue with 'stage 2' load-shedding "as a result of a shortage of capacity due to a number of generating units still out of service due to breakdowns".
On Wednesday the main opposition Democratic Alliance warned the cash-strapped utility against using the rolling blackouts as a bargaining tool to get more money.
Eskom imposed similar powercuts from March after the National Energy Regulator of South Africa decided to grant it lower annual tariff increases than it had asked for. The latest wave of load-shedding comes despite initial assurances from Eskom that there were no planned blackouts for September and October.
Another opposition party, the Inkatha Freedom Party warned on Wednesday that the powercuts would hurt efforts to revive the ailing economy and would hit small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs) the hardest.