Eskom’s New Energy Apartheid – Load Shedding for elites & Load Reduction for Poor People.

Eskom is quietly running a new form of structural inequity that disrupts the lives of the majority of citizens in townships and informal settlements. It is called load reduction, which leaves the most vulnerable and low-income poor communities without power at for no less than five hours per day, during the very time they need it most – peak hours.

Eskom justifies this violation of people’s right to energy as “localised measures” aimed at preventing overloaded infrastructure, often implemented during peak demand periods on a daily basis.  The areas targeted are typically townships and informal settlements areas, where there are often illegal connections.

The unfairness of this “load reduction” is in its operation under the radar screen of public opinion.  I was not aware of this until the 2025 Easter long weekend.  It impacts people in a random way regardless of their law abiding status. Eskom’s paying customers suffer as collateral damage. Eskom acknowledges that the impact of load reduction for long periods affects business operations, household activities and essential services.

How has this discriminatory practice become institutionalised while Eskom boasts of absence of load shedding over many months in middle class areas? Has our government, that claims to care about those at the bottom of our structurally inequitable society, become so habituated to providing for elites whilst giving crumbs to poor people that it doesn’t care about the disruptions this practice causes?

We need to see the faces of those honest hard working people such as Mrs X, who is forced to wake up daily at midnight to mix the dough of the fat cakes she sells to provide her a source of income. She then sleeps for two hours whilst the dough rises, before getting up to cook the fat cakes before the lights go off at 0500hrs until 0900hrs. At the end of the day she has to rush back from her trading area to cook her family supper, before the next shut down 1700-2200 hrs. This has been Mrs X’s reality since January 2025! What quality of life is this?

Eskom puts the blame on illegal electricity connections that overloads and damages infrastructure. Recent cases indicate that Eskom employees are often the technical connectors who charge poor people to do these illegal connections. Eskom must put its own house in order.  They must identify and punish offenders from within their own institution to end this practice. No lay person would take a chance of opening a transformer and wiring illegal connections.

The problem is governance. It was the senior politically connected Eskom officials and board members who captured and collapsed Eskom over the last two decades.   South Africa suffered energy shortages due to decade long delays in power stations repairs. Institutionalised corruption has encouraged lower level technicians to help themselves to public resources by doing these illegal connections. A culture of accountability must be seen to be embraced from the top to bottom.

Our failure to create sustainable environments in which all citizens know their rights and assume their responsibilities, is at the heart of the poor unaccountable governance. The public service needs a complete revamp to teach and enforce responsible citizenship, effective and efficient service by all those paid to serve the public. Consequence management is sorely missing at the highest levels in our government and amongst public representatives. Hardworking people pay a high economic cost and stress that undermines their wellbeing.

Mamphela Ramphele

Chair Archbishop Tutu IPTRUST

30/4/2025