The intensifying of power cuts comes on the first day of the matric final exams and a mere five days before the local government elections. 

ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte says the governing party will demand answers from Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter and Gordhan. 

“You cannot do something like that and not give us a reason why. You also have to think, as a society, that we have lives to live and businesses to run and children to feed. 

“So it’s unacceptable, so our people need a proper answer from Meneer de Ruyter as well as the minister.” 

South Africa has been subjected to rolling blackouts for more than a week, as Eskom battles to keep the lights on to due a lack of generating capacity. 

When the rolling blackouts returned at the weekend, the power utility implemented stage 2 load shedding. 

However, it accelerated to stage 4 on Wednesday afternoon.

The power utility is citing a total generation loss of 14 957 MW as the reason for the intense power cuts.

It has, however, assured South Africans that load shedding will come to an end by the start of next week.

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