Criminal protests obstruct Eskom operations in province with the most power stations

Eskom’s power stations in Mpumalanga have faced operational disruptions over the past two weeks due to job seekers holding protests at its sites, some of which turned violent.

According to Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena, the issues stem from misinformation doing the rounds on social media.

“Eskom is aware of the misinformation circulating on social media about job opportunities at power stations,” she told SABC News.

“This misinformation requests member of the public to submit their CVs at the different power stations.”

Mokwena warned that the protests stemming from the false claims are disrupting the normal operations of its Mpumalanga power stations, inhibiting their ability to generate electricity.

“They are also criminal in nature,” she said.

Some of the protests have turned violent. South African police officials arrested 10 protestors at the Kriel Power Station on Friday, 9 May 2025, for violence and property damage.

“We are discouraging the community, or people at large, while protesting from committing violence and damaging property,” said South African Police Service Lieutenant Colonel Jabu Ndubane.

Mokwena said Eskom will formally notify community stakeholders or reps when hiring commences, which will be done through established structures.

“We advise members of the public not to visit Eskom offices nor its power stations for job applications,” she said.

“Instead, they should wait for the normal official announcements through these community stakeholders and official publications.”

Community members have grown frustrated with Eskom’s lack of engagement with community members over job opportunities.

There have been at least three protests at the Kriel, Matla and Kendal power stations in the past two weeks.

Due to its rich coal resources, Mpumalanga is home to 12 of South Africa’s 18 coal-fired power stations.

According to Eskom, Mpumalanga produces about 80% of the country’s coal, making it logistically ideal to host most of its coal-fired power stations.

Stage 4 load-shedding warning for winter

Eskom implemented Stage 2 load-shedding between 16:00 and 22:00 on Tuesday, 13 May 2025, and the rotational power cuts will continue at the same times on Wednesday and Thursday.

The power utility said the primary reason for load-shedding was the delayed return of several units from planned maintenance, combined with the loss of 1,385MW of generation capacity in the 24 hours before its announcement.

“This decision follows the delayed return of generation units amounting to 3,120MW, as well as an additional loss of 1,385MW in the past 24 hours due to unplanned breakdowns,” it said.

“These delays, coupled with an unplanned capacity loss that has now temporarily exceeded 13,000MW.”

According to Eskom’s 2025 Winter Outlook, South Africa shouldn’t be subjected to any load-shedding over the period if unplanned capacity losses remain below 13,000MW.

Should unplanned capacity losses reach 15,000MW, the power utility warned that 21 days of up to Stage 2 load-shedding will be required to ensure the grid’s stability.

However, Impower energy expert Matthew Cruise believes South African residents could experience up to Stage 4 load-shedding this winter, with Eskom having already exceeded 15,000MW of capacity losses on Monday, 12 May 2025.

According to Eskom’s hourly UCLF and other capacity loss factor chart, he combined losses exceeded 15,680MW at 23:00 on Tuesday.

“Eskom is not giving much detail about what has been going on at the individual power stations,” said Cruise.

“We’re currently at 15,680MW in terms of unplanned outages. So we’ve gone way past the 15,000MW that they said would lead to stage 2 load-shedding this winter.”

He described the recent capacity losses as problematic, considering the winter period has only just begun and demand is expected to continue to rise.

“We can actually expect that there’s going to be load-shedding up to stage 4, so we need to prepare for that,” he said.