For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Thabi Shomolekae.

Making headlines: Loadshedding moves to Stage 3; South Africa won’t need Electricity Minister by end of 2024; And, IEC affirms credibility following leaked candidate lists

Loadshedding moves to Stage 3

Eskom will implement Stage 3 loadshedding from 16:00 today to 05:00 on tomorrow and will repeat this pattern for the next few days.

The move to Stage 3 loadshedding is owing to the loss of three generating units and the delay in returning a further three units to service.

South Africa won’t need Electricity Minister by end of 2024

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said an anticipated improvement in electricity supply should see him out of a job by the end of 2024.

He said the country will get an additional 6 000 megawatts of supply from State sources by the end of the year.

Ramokgopa was appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to help resolve the 15-year power crisis last year. Outages, often lasting 10 hours or more daily, have slowed economic growth and have become a lightning rod for criticism of the ruling African National Congress’s management of the economy in the run-up to national elections in May.

Within about a week, the government and the State power utility, Eskom, will announce how private investors can participate in an expected R390-billion expansion of the national transmission grid, Ramokgopa said

And, IEC affirms credibility following leaked candidate lists

Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo assures that the credibility of the commission is not dependent on a single factor he said in reference to the recent leaked candidate lists of the African National Congress and the uMkhonto weSizwe Party.

Mamabolo said the person responsible for circulating the lists has been fired from the IEC.

On Saturday, the IEC reported that it had become aware of lists of candidates that were being circulated on social media platforms. The IEC indicated that the lists contained hallmarks that suggested it was circulated by a user inside the organisation.

He assured that the reports were deleted from the workstation, which had since been secured and imaged in the presence of the staff member whose credentials were used to generate the reports.

He highlighted that a forensic analysis of the computer was under way.

He explained that several measures had been taken since the matter came to light on Friday, saying access to the report section of the candidate nomination had been scaled down.

He added that there was also heightened awareness created among all staff members, noting that corrective actions had been taken in terms of internal policies of the IEC.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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