Eskom will continue stage 2 load shedding into 22:00 in the evening and resume stage 2 load shedding at 08:00 on Friday morning.

This is despite Eskom announcing that it successfully returned four generation units to service on Thursday.

"Load shedding has been caused by an increase in plant breakdowns over the past few days. Staying on stage 2 load shedding will also assist us in preserving our emergency generation reserves, namely diesel and water," Eskom said in a statement.

The statement said the restoration of the generation units was not enough to stave off load shedding immediately. Breakdowns during the week removed 13 500 MW of capacity from the system, the statement said.

On Wednesday afternoon, Eskom released a statement saying that the system was "severely constrained" as the power utility worked to restore two units at Tutuka, one at Duvha, one at Matimba and one at Kusile.