Load reduction 'coming to end'

South Africa could take up to 18 months to completely eliminate load reduction, depending on community cooperation and infrastructure challenges, says Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.

- Enkosi Selane

The minister held a media briefing to outline comprehensive interventions aimed at ending load reduction, which affects 1.69 million customers, or about 8.5 million people, across the country.

He acknowledged load reduction primarily impacts poor communities during morning and afternoon peak periods.

"Today, I’m announcing that we are ending load reduction. The period we have set ourselves is anything between 12 and 18 months, but it can be exceptionally shorter than that," Ramokgopa said.

"The 18-month period is a function of how we are received by communities. If there is absolute cooperation by communities, we'll end it in the next 12 months."