The power outages are due to start at 4pm on Tuesday until 10pm.

Thereafter the blackouts will be implemented daily between 5am and 10pm until Saturday night.

Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantha says the return of load shedding is due to a shortage of generation capacity.

 "The breakdown of a generation unit at Arnot, Duvha, Kendal, Medupi and Tutuka power stations, as well as the delays in returning to service a unit to service at Hendrina power station, have exacerbated the capacity constraints.”

READ: SA economy shrinks by 0.7%

Mantshantha says Unit 2 at Koeberg also tripped during routine testing on Saturday morning.

He says the process to return the unit back to service is currently under way.

The embattled power utility is currently running at 4 588MW on planned maintenance, while another 16 142MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.