Eskom has released a statement saying that the power utility will implement loadshedding until 22:00 on Monday evening and resume with load shedding from 09:00 on Tuesday morning.

Eskom reintroduced loadshedding to South Africa on Friday, which was the first time the country experienced loadshedding since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, another crisis which bodes ill for the economy.

The Eskom statement said breakdowns at Kriel and Medupi stations because of difficulties starting up made it harder for the utility to avoid load shedding.

"In order to limit the impact of loadshedding on morning peak traffic, Eskom will start implementing stage 2 loadshedding from 09:00 tomorrow morning," the statement said.

The statement said that on Monday afternoon unit 2 of Koeberg Power Station successfully synchronised onto the grid, while a unit each at Majuba and Lethabo stations also returned to service. Koeberg unit 2 has been on cold reserve since April this year. 

However, the statement said, the return of the units to the grid was not enough to allow Eskom to suspend load shedding.