There was no load shedding on Monday night as the power grid stabilised, but Eskom has warned that this does not mean the crisis is over. The power utility has urged customers to keep saving electricity, Fin24 reported.
On Sunday and Monday, Eskom cancelled load shedding but said the grid remained constrained. Eyewitness News reported that according to Eskom spokesperson, Khulu Phasiwe, the use of headers and other appliances will determine whether load shedding continues.
Unions the National Union of Metalworkers SA (Numsa), the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Solidarity are due to begin wage negotiations with Eskom again on Tuesday. Last week, negotiations broke down when Eskom offered no wage increases across the board, and unions embarked on a one-day protest which the power utility said resulted in sabotage and intimidation, which ultimately led to the need for load shedding.
On Monday, Eskom reportedly said the country was not out of the woods, yet.
According to Fin24, Phasiwe said, "Customers are advised to keep checking their load shedding schedules on the Eskom and their municipal websites, and plan on the assumption that load shedding will take place, We thank all customers for using electricity sparingly during this period, assisting us to pull through the evening peak."
It will take about ten days for the grid to completely normalise, Phasiwe previously warned.
Talks between Eskom and unions resumed thanks to the intervention of Public Enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan, who met the parties on Saturday.
Gordhan reportedly told Eskom that it could not return to the table with an offer of no increases and urged parties on both sides of the talks to tone down their rhetoric.
He told Business Day in an interview on Sunday that he had to step in to avoid load shedding, which would have hurt the economy.
Meanwhile, a source has told BusinessLive that the NUM is open to an inflation-linked pay rise instead of the 15% demand. Consumer inflation was reportedly running at 4.5% in April.