Eskom power cuts
Connect Us: Load shedding's impact on economy, and how to keep your lights on
Eskom has been placed under severe pressure due to its inability to produce power for South African households and businesses.
Soweto owes more than R4.5 billion with only a reported 40% of residents willing to actually pay for services.
Reactions on Twitter ranged from people being amused at the situation and seeing a good opportunity to ask the minister how she felt about it.
On Tuesday, Eskom is heading to the central bargaining forum to discuss possible wage increases with The National Union of Mineworkers, The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and Solidarity.
Eskom deliberately cut power to many communities in these parts of Gauteng at 5 am, with the utility saying it was safeguarding its network from overloading.
The power utility said it was trying to prevent network overloading in high density communities in Gauteng.
Stage two power cuts were rolled out for much of Saturday, and stage one outages were scheduled for Sunday.
Although there has been a reprieve for many businesses and households in recent months, Eskom still has to repair problematic power stations - a process that will take a long time.
It says the outages are part of its "load reduction timetable" which aims to prevent network overloading in Gauteng communities.
The power utility implemented so called "load reduction" in many communities in Tshwane.
Eskom managed to suspend load shedding until Tuesday afternoon after returning more generation units back to service.
Eskom said its suspended power cuts for Friday and said it hoped to avoid blackouts over the next 48 hours.
The power utility said that the power system was severely constrained.
Eskom says it will update South Africans on Friday afternoon on whether it will ramp up loadshedding from stage two or even scrap loadshedding for the weekend.
Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter told the Cape Town Press Club that the power cuts were a symptom of underlying instability at Eskom.
Some community leaders in Diepsloot are calling on residents not to take part in Monday’s planned shutdown in the area. They are worried that criminal elements may try to hijack the move which is aimed at raising genuine complaints.
It's not clear what started the blaze but the utility said it suspects vandalism.
State power company Zesa Holdings LTD has admitted that the power crisis looks set to continue until it clears its debts.