Eskom marked a milestone last week: 328 consecutive days without national load shedding. The energy availability factor sits above 65%, and Kusile Power Station has reached full capacity, adding 4,800MW to the grid.
Why it matters
For millions of South Africans in townships and rural areas, the milestone rings hollow. They still lose power for four to five hours a day through a practice Eskom calls load reduction.
The distinction
Load shedding is a national emergency measure that cuts power across scheduled blocks when demand exceeds supply. Load reduction is a targeted practice that disconnects specific feeders in areas where infrastructure is under sustained pressure from illegal connections, overloading, or non-payment.
According to Eskom, load reduction is not a supply problem. It is an infrastructure protection measure to prevent transformer failures and cable burnouts in overloaded networks.
What residents say
As TimesLive reported, South Africans in affected areas say the distinction is meaningless. Power is off for hours. Fridges defrost. Businesses lose revenue. Whether Eskom calls it load shedding or load reduction makes no difference to a family cooking dinner by candlelight.
Parts of Gauteng faced scheduled load reduction last week, with outages affecting both morning and evening peak periods.
The progress is real
Eskom’s generation recovery is genuine. Unplanned outages dropped to 8,981MW in early April, down from 13,930MW a year ago. The utility has removed 211 feeders from load reduction so far, benefiting more than 342,000 customers.
Eskom says it aims to eliminate load reduction entirely by 2027 through infrastructure upgrades, smart meter rollouts, and community engagement.
What happens next
The 2026 local government elections later this year will test whether voters in affected areas accept Eskom’s framing. For the national grid, the picture is improving. For individual households still in the dark, the celebration feels premature.