For the first time ever, Eskom is planning on introducing stage 4 load shedding.

South Africans, especially in Gauteng have been hit hard by frequent load shedding schedules.

For the past week, Eskom has been shedding load on a daily basis which has had a bad effect on businesses and lives in general.

It seems the struggle is not over and might get tougher as Financial24 has reported that stage 4 load shedding will be implemented soon.

Although Eskom did not specify exactly when the stage 4 will be implemented, it is believed it could be sometime this weekend.

Here are the different types of load shedding stages:

Stage 1 – cutting 1000 megawatts from the grid.

Stage 2 – cutting 2000 megawatts from the grid.

Stage 3 – cutting over 3000 megawatts from the grid.

At this stage, it is unclear exactly how many megawatts of power will be shed when stage 4 will be implemented since it has previously been said that stage 3 has two levels (stage 3a shedding 3000 MW and stage 3b shedding about 4000MW) -  but it is believed stage 4 will be around 4000 which is about the total generating capacity of Medupi Power Station.

"So we are planning to change stage 3 to up to 3 000 MW, and stage 4 will then be up to 4 000 MW," an Eskom spokesperson told Fin24 on Friday.

"The exact date has not yet been confirmed. But it will be in the near future."