By Silindzelwe Nxumalo
THE Eswatini Electricity Company’s (EEC) new ‘load-shedding’ schedule has ignited a wave of public outcry and raised serious concerns among the citizens. As power cuts become a daily reality, frustration, and inconvenience mount, leaving many questioning the effectiveness and fairness of the implemented measures.
The nation took to their social media platforms to raise concerns which include concerns over the irregular duration of the load-shedding, and some were asking what triggered EEC to issue such a sudden schedule.
Some members of the public also raised concerns as to how long was the entity planning to have these load-shedding episodes in the country.
EEC Marketing and Corporate Communications Manager Khaya Mavuso said the duration of the load shedding was as per schedule for all affected groups on a rotational basis and that their schedule runs from 5 pm to 9 pm. Mavuso stated that in most cases, sometimes customers were not in the dark because of load shedding but due to an unplanned outage.
Mavuso explained that what led to the load-shedding in the country was due to the increased load-shedding in South Africa which then forced EEC to increase their reduction rate on usage in the country.
He added that another reason that led to the load-shedding schedule was the increased faults leading to generation capacity in Eswatini.
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“Also, with the current heatwave in the country, we have noted that there has been an increase in the demand for electricity which we believe is due to the use of air conditioning,†he said. He encouraged customers to report outages that were outside of the published load-shedding schedule and urged them to reduce their consumption.
“We have noted that most of the consumption happens in the afternoon from 5 pm, of which we would like to encourage the nation to use the electricity wisely and least try to cook during the day,†he said. He also added that when customers reduce their consumption, it helps because they then suspend load shedding, meaning it does not last for the duration of the set schedule.
Meanwhile, Business Eswatini (BE) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) E. Nathi Dlamini said they assume that the EEC made this decision due to the current heatwave as they believed there was more consumption of electricity in the country.
Dlamini said as the private sector they trusted the decisions made by EEC as they believed they had done everything they could to avoid this. Dlamini stated that looking at the track record of the EEC providing electricity in the country for years, they knew they had always avoided getting here.
“As a country, we need to be thankful that it has not been worse as compared to what is happening in South Africa. This is just a few hours for us,†he said.
