Longer power outages unjustifiable, says uMhlathuze mayor

The City of uMhlathuze says it is engaging with Eskom to take back control of the load shedding program in the Esikhawini and Nseleni areas.

Officials say these communities are subjected to longer stretches of power cuts compared to other parts of the city.

Mayor Xolani Ngwezi claims this is because of an agreement between the previous administration and Eskom.

Ngwezi says negotiations are underway to address the issue.

He has urged the utility to reduce the hours of load shedding in the affected areas in the interim.

"This arrangement by the previous administration with Eskom is giving challenges now because Eskom is unable to keep the minimum times which are actually regulated by the load shedding. For instance, if load shedding is two hours, you'll find that electricity is taken away in these areas for four hours and so on. So that is unjustifiable."