JOHANNESBURG - Eskom has admitted it is working with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to prepare blackout schedules beyond Stage 8.
This is despite government's plans to appoint an Electricity Minister to focus solely on reducing power cuts.
Energy analyst Ruse Moleshe says Stage 8 would be catastrophic.
"What the higher stages of load-shedding mean is that in terms of the supply of electricity, there is not enough capacity to meet the demand and therefore there will be higher stages," she said.
"For Stage 8, for instance, it is about 8,000 megawatts that will not be available and that is the size of more than three countries in Southern Africa and the hours will definitely be higher, more than 12 hours of load-shedding."