Municipalities brace

Eskom has cut dead suggestions that South Africa could soon be in the grip of a national blackout, but despite the utility’s efforts to allay such fears, some of the country’s biggest municipalities are bracing for the worst.

In Johannesburg, the high stages of load-shedding have wreaked havoc on municipal infrastructure, hamstringing service delivery.

Michael Sun, the member of the mayoral committee (MMC) for environment and infrastructure services, said the municipality would not be caught off guard in the eventuality of a “Hollywood-style” blackout.

“I have spoken to our executive mayor Mpho Phalatse’s office to say that we need to convene an urgent disaster management forum meeting and that we bring all stakeholders on board … to say, should this happen — should we even get close to a complete blackout — we have a plan,” Sun told Mail & Guardian this week.

“This is what we are going to do in terms of electricity, water, healthcare, emergency services, going down to something as basic as food supply. We need to start to prepare ourselves, because we are certainly not going to wait for Eskom to tell us that it is going to be stage eight this evening and for the weekend, so good luck.”

On Sunday, after Eskom announced it would escalate loadshedding to stage six, chief executive André de Ruyter said the utility was doing its level best to avoid a total system collapse. “I don’t think that is an imminent risk. I think this is something that is managed and can be avoided,” he said.

But with South Africa moving closer to stage eight — the highest level of load-shedding, beyond which