JOHANNESBURG - It's Christmas Eve and South Africans are waking up to Stage 3 blackouts.
Eskom says it will confirm the schedule on Sunday, so maybe we'll be in luck and not have to make our Christmas lunch around a rolling blackout schedule.
Households and businesses have been under enormous pressure recently as Eskom ramped up power cuts to Stage 6 this month.
It's been blamed on a flurry of breakdowns and delays in returning units to service.
Maintenance work has also reduced the availability of power.
Rotational blackouts have also been implemented to penalise non-paying municipalities.
Some metros’ residents have been experiencing 12-hour power cuts.