500 days without load shedding but thousands of South Africans are still facing power cuts

South Africa has now gone more than 500 consecutive days without load shedding, but that does not mean every household is enjoying uninterrupted electricity.

Eskom says the country reached 504 consecutive days without load shedding on Friday, 2 October, with the streak dating back to 16 May 2025.

The power utility says the achievement reflects improvements in its generation fleet, including fewer unplanned outages and more generation capacity being returned to service.

But hundreds of thousands of customers are still affected by a different type of power interruption.

More than 200 000 customers still affected

Eskom says 202 590 customers remain affected by load reduction. This is down significantly from the 1.69 million customers previously affected, with around 1.5 million customers restored to normal supply conditions.

Seven provinces are now completely free from load reduction.

The remaining affected customers are in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, with Eskom saying more than 60% of customers previously affected in the two provinces have already been restored.

So what’s the difference between load shedding and load reduction?

But how exactly does the two differ? Well, load shedding is a national or regional measure used to protect the electricity system when there is not enough generation capacity to meet demand.

Load reduction is different.

Eskom uses it as a targeted measure in specific areas where electricity infrastructure is under severe strain, particularly where illegal connections and meter tampering are causing damage or overloading the network.

This means South Africa can have a stable national power system without load shedding while some communities still experience planned interruptions.

Eskom says load reduction is being used as a temporary measure in high-risk areas to protect both communities and the electricity network.

The utility has also committed to eliminating load reduction by March 2027 through its Load Reduction Eradication Programme. The sharp reduction in affected customers suggests progress is being made.

However, Eskom says illegal connections and meter tampering remain a problem in some localised areas, creating infrastructure damage and safety risks.