Cape Town - Truth be told, Eskom has South Africans at its mercy at the moment.
Whether it is the workplace or household, on a date or a holiday, running a business or on the road, you have to be mindful of the load shedding schedule.
In February, Eskom was without 7 000MW on the grid, raising speculation that South Africans experienced stage 7 load shedding during that time.
And once again, it is feared that South Africa hit stage 8 load shedding during the latest wave of higher stages of outages, despite Eskom’s denials.
While Eskom described the situation since last week as stage 6, it is believed that the power utility cut more than 7 000MW last Thursday, something that only happens under stage 8 load shedding.
With the colder season on the horizon, the situation will no doubt deteriorate.
Load shedding is destined to be with us for the next few years, and thus Eskom needs to be honest and tell the nation the truth.
Keeping such crucial information within the corridors of Eskom’s Megawatt Park headquarters would further alienate the utility and make it even more unpopular with the public than it already is.
The situation cannot get any worse, unless there is a total breakdown of the electricity system; so inform the end-users and let them deal with it, as painful as the truth may be.