JOHANNESBURG - South African households and businesses have been buckling under the effects of power cuts for 17 years now.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has requested Eskom not to implement its 18 percent tariff increase, but Eskom says it isn't in a position to simply decide not to increase prices.
"Yes, it is unfortunate that we have to implement any load-shedding at all, the reality is without the load-shedding we'll totally break the system and then we'll all have no electricity whatsoever," said Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha.
"What has to be done is to maintain the system and all the running of Eskom has to be paid for using the electricity prices."