Hankey and other parts of the Gamtoos Valley were without power last night as Eskom faced power supply problems due to striking workers.
Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe confirmed in a tweet that there would be stage 1 load shedding, saying it would take place between 17:50 and 20:00.
Phasiwe said load shedding was caused by intimidation and acts of sabotage by striking workers. Speaking to Fin24, Phasiwe said municipalities must determine which areas would be affected.
At 20:00 Eskom tweeted that electricity had been restored “in all areas”.
“Stage 1 load shedding was lifted at 19:59 this evening. Please note that it may take a bit of time for some municipalities to fully restore power in some of the affected areas,” tweeted Phasiwe.
Earlier, Eskom admitted that South Africa faced a real risk of load shedding and asked South Africans to lower power consumption in a bid to avoid outages.
The power utility asked consumers to switch off geysers, pool pumps, heaters and non-essential appliances within the peak period between 17:00 and 20:00.
Eskom said the national grid was under considerable pressure, with the country having just experienced a week of cold winter weather.
