Minister of Electricity and Energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has vouched to end load reduction by 2027, saving 1.69-million customers from darkness.
A total of 529 megawatts of load reduction is linked to 971 feeders and affects 1 694 388 customers during the morning and evening peak times.
This is caused mainly by overloading of the distribution feeder network in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, and KwaZulu-Natal.
Ramokgopa revealed this on Thursday during a media briefing to update on the progress of load reduction interventions across the country.
He said Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal were the hardest hit and needed urgent intervention but the remaining provinces would see load reduction eliminated in the next eight to 12 months.
Discrimination on income basis
Gauteng has 632 158 households affected by load reduction and Ramokgopa said 145 482 of these would not experience load reduction by March 2026, and more if there is no resistance.
Limpopo has 349 370 affected households, followed by Mpumalanga at 335 550, and KwaZulu-Natal at 298 150.
“What is more worrying about load reduction is that it has an appearance of discrimination on an income basis,” he said.
“The density or concentration of load reduction is in poor areas, and it gives an impression that we are penalising the poor, those who cannot afford. Those who are affluent, the rich, who have a voice, are left unpunished.
“We are ending load reduction. The period we had set ourselves is anything from 12 to 18 months, but it can be exceptionally shorter than that.”
Ramokgopa explained that the timeline can be shorter granted that they are well received within communities to do their job.
Illegal electricity connections
Ramokgopa outlined plans to end load reduction, including registering indigent customers so they can get free electricity and rolling out smart meters.
He explained that the 1.69-million affected persons are only customers, and this may translate to 8.5-million if it is considered that an average household has five members.
“Every day when they wake up they don’t have access to electricity. When they come back from work in the evening there is about three to four hours where they don’t have access to electricity. It is a major disruptions to their living experiences,” said Ramokgopa.
He said the country is facing 771 transformer failures, much of which are linked to illegal electricity connections.
To end illegal connections, he said, they will be going into typically informal areas to roll out smart meters, ensuring that every household has access to electricity that is legally procured.
“Part of the resistance I was referring to — we know that there are those who are profiting from these illegal connections.
“Some Eskom and municipal workers are illegally connecting these people, and we know they will incite those communities to oppose us because we are taking an illegal income that they have accumulated over time, at the detriment of the consumers in the area.
“There are issues of vandalism, and we will be making efforts to refurbish and maintain the distribution and reticulation infrastructure as part of our response.
“We will be rolling it out ourselves to ensure that we are able to address this situation.”
Effect on small businesses
He highlighted that the impact of load reduction goes beyond households, as it is negatively impacting social, economic, and safety.
He explained that load reduction being mostly in townships affects small businesses that primarily depend on electricity to operate, and that students studying for their exams are disadvantaged by the darkness they get home to.
“When in fact those who are in affluent areas can go online, their lights are on, they can do their homework, they study better under relatively better circumstances, and that has an impact on the prospects of their academic progress,” he said.
He said work is continuing with municipalities to determine the number of households affected and promised regular updates on the progress.
