Mantashe Warns Severe Load Shedding May Cause Revolts
The National Chairperson of South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), Samson Gwede Mantashe, has warned that the current crisis at power utility Eskom may cause social unrest in the country.
On Saturday, Eskom escalated its rolling blackouts from Stage Four to Five due to what it called unusually high demand.
The electricity shortages were exacerbated by the breakdown of a generating unit each at Hendrina, Kendal, and Kriel power stations.
Earlier last week, Eskom had pushed up the rolling blackouts to Stage Six.
Mantashe, who is also South Africa’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, was speaking at the Matla Coal Multi-purpose Hall outside Kriel in Mpumalanga. He said:
When you have level six any time up and down the state is going to be overthrown by the people, that’s what it means actually.
l am talking about a revolt. Eskom must do what it should do, technically they have the capacity to do it.
South Africa, just like its northern neighbour, Zimbabwe, is experiencing debilitating power cuts. | SABC News
