Cabinet has moved to reassure South Africans that everything is being done to address the current electricity challenges which have resulted in load shedding this week.

“Cabinet has noted the current challenges with electricity caused by technical and infrastructure problems in some of our power stations,” said Minister in the Presidency for Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation, Jeff Radebe, on Thursday.

He was briefing media in Cape Town following Cabinet’s fortnightly meeting.

The country experienced rolling blackouts at the weekend after one of the silos at the Majuba power station, which is located in Mpumalanga, cracked and later collapsed on Saturday. The silo had housed over 10 000 tons of coal.

In a statement on Wednesday, Eskom said progress is being made to recover capacity at the Majuba power station, with the utility being hopeful that no further load-shedding will be needed for the rest of this week.

“Cabinet therefore calls on all South Africans to assist in saving electricity as the country’s power grid is under severe strain. Cabinet would like to reassure South Africans that everything is being done to address these problems,” the Minister told the media.

Government also expressed concern on the economic impact of load-shedding.

“Yes, we are worried about the economic impact of load-shedding that is why we are impressing upon Eskom to do everything it can to solve whatever problems there are with the silo that was affected,” said Minister Radebe.

Eskom said the Majuba power station has ramped up to generating capacity of 1200MW.

In his State of the Nation Address earlier this year, President Jacob Zuma highlighted energy as a top priority.

“The mere reason that the President highlighted energy as a top priority is a reflection of the seriousness with which we see the issue of energy because without energy we will not be able to fire the industrialisation of the South African economy,” said Minister Radebe. – SAnews.gov.za