Actually Mbeki admitted it and felt if he knew the truth, and not the lies Eskom management had told him, he wouldve fired many of them.
You see the initial load-shedding, the plants intentionally didnt stock up on coal, and let it run out, so that the initial loadshedding happened. This so that they could get better increases and bonuses through heightened price hikes.
Eskom officials actually planned it on purpose.
Now load shedding is avoided because soo many companies has closed down and many has shifted to solar, thus reducing the load on the grid. Not because Eskom did anything useful.
Eskom has been increasing salaries by more than inflation since then. Between 8.5% to 7% year on year.