Loadshedding eases on Monday but exemption keeps lights on for VIPs at Nasrec

Eskom plans to reduce crippling countrywide loadshedding to stage 5 early on Monday, while a special exemption “due to the presence of high security risk persons” at the ANC national conference has spared VIPs from blackouts at Nasrec in Johannesburg.

“Stage 6 loadshedding will be reduced to stage 5 at 5am on Monday. Thereafter stage 4 loadshedding will be implemented at 5am on Tuesday for the remainder of the week,” the state-owned power utility said on Sunday.

“Eskom will publish a further update as soon as there are any significant changes.”

City Power on Saturday afternoon confirmed getting a request from SAPS NatJoints to exclude the Nasrec precinct from power cuts for the duration of the ANC conference.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said: “The exclusion is to assist security operations in the area due to the presence of high security risk persons such as the president of the country, deputy president and government ministers.

“The request, fortunately, came at a time when Eskom granted City Power a reprieve  from load-shedding, which enables us to, on a daily rotational basis, exempt certain substations from load-shedding.

“Nasrec precinct is fed from two substations — Crown and Robertsham — and at any given bout of load-shedding, one of them is switched off. Robertsham is excluded from load-shedding [on Saturday] which is scheduled from 8am to 12.30pm and from 4pm to 6.30pm,” he said.

City Power, he added, “has always supported the major events — be it sports, religious or cultural events — within the City of Johannesburg through our relationship with event organisers”.

President Cyril Ramaphosa told more than 4,000 delegates at the conference on Friday night: “The insecurity of the electricity supply continues to be one of the greatest impediments and risks to economic recovery in our country.”

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