Eskom has published its updated load shedding schedule for the coming week, with the power outages expected to continue until the weekend, albeit at a reduced stage.

In an emailed statement Eskom said that the load shedding stages for Monday–Thursday are confirmed. “The stage of load shedding for the rest of the period is dependent on returning generating units to service and will be confirmed closer to the time,” it said.

Eskom chief executive officer Andre de Ruyter had previously indicated that South Africa could see the end of rolling blackouts by end of this week. Speaking to Reuters on Saturday (16 July), de Ruyter said that the national power utility has seen more generation units returning to operation.

“Towards the end of the coming week, we should emerge from load shedding,” said de Ruyter at a walking tour of the Tutuka power station accompanied by president Cyril Ramaphosa.

“We’ve already lifted our indication for load shedding going forward; we’ve got a couple of big units returning, so that’s positive news,” he added. De Ruyter said Eskom expects load shedding to become less likely by the end of the month as the troubled nuclear plant Koeberg 2 comes back online.”

Schedules 

For people living in the major metros, load shedding schedules are available here:

• City of Johannesburg
• City of Ekurhuleni 
• City of Tshwane 
• City of Cape Town (PDF)
• Nelson Mandela Bay
• eThekwini
• Manguang
• Buffalo City

For access to other load shedding schedules, Eskom has made them available on loadshedding.eskom.co.za.

Smartphone users can also download the app EskomSePush to receive push notifications when load shedding is implemented, as well as the times the area you are in will be off.