Cape Town – Despite South Africa going over 250 days without load shedding, the government has not officially declared the electricity crisis over.
According to Business Report, Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said that while the power system has improved — with 4 000 – 5 000MW of excess capacity available daily — ending load shedding is not just about technical readiness.
The minister was speaking during an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos on Thursday.
The government wants electricity supply to support economic growth, not just maintain current levels.
“The first goal is to reach a point where people don’t even notice how many days we’ve gone without load shedding,” the report quoted Ramokgopa as saying.
“That would mean we’ve transitioned psychologically, we don’t anticipate its return. But we’re not quite there yet.”
Ramokgopa noted that if large energy-intensive companies resumed operations simultaneously, demand could exceed supply.
He stressed that load shedding can only truly end when the economy grows at least 3% and the system can handle failures without interruptions.
Meanwhile, as reported by Mybroadband, Eskom’s slow smart meter rollout is also slowing progress toward ending load reduction, a more targeted form of power cuts used to protect infrastructure, especially in areas with high illegal connections.
Only 73,523 of 577,347 planned smart meters have been installed for March 2026, and just 70 of 271 feeders targeted to be removed from load reduction schedules have been completed.
Expanding free basic electricity (FBE) access and deploying distributed energy generation are also part of Eskom’s strategy, but progress has been slow.
Current FBE registrations cover just 579,360 of an estimated 2.1 million eligible customers, though plans are in place to gradually increase the allocation from 50kWh to 200kWh per month.
Ramokgopa said South Africa cannot declare the power crisis over until load reduction is fully resolved.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
