Electricity & energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has vowed to end load reduction affecting mostly poor areas within 12 months — if there is no resistance in the affected communities.
In cases where communities resist for whatever reason, Ramokgopa said, they would extend the deadline by six months.
“So now today I’m announcing we’re ending load reduction,” said Ramokgopa in a media briefing on Thursday. “The period we have set ourselves is anything between 12 and 18 months, but it can be exceptionally shorter than that.”
The minister said he and the Eskom team would work around the clock to meet the deadline as he was concerned that the nature of the current bouts of load reduction had elements of discrimination.
“What is more worrying about load reduction is that it’s got an appearance of discrimination on an income basis,” said Ramokgopa.
“So essentially you’ll see when I map the prevalence of load reduction in the country, the density or the concentration of load reduction is in poor areas and it gives an impression that we are penalising the poor, those who can’t afford, and those who are affluent and the rich who have a voice are let off scot-free.”
[SRC] https://www.businesslive.co.za/amp/bd/national/2025-09-25-ramokgopa-pledges-to-end-load-reduction-in-poor-areas-but-needs-co-operation/
