Restore the power grid | Stages 3 and 4 for most of this week

PRETORIA - We will be swinging between Stage 3 and 4 rolling blackouts for most of this week.

It comes after enduring a period of Stage 6 power cuts.

The energy availability factor is at just over 50 percent after some units were taken offline for maintenance.

But with generation units still unreliable, these lower stages can't be guaranteed.  

"We shouldn’t even normalise Stage 4 or Stage 3. But the context is that Stage 6 is really, really much worse," said Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.

"I can’t stand and say that in public that you have seen the end of it. I can’t. The point I’m making is that we are ramping up on planned maintenance.

"We have an option by the way, and not do planned maintenance and I can say with confidence that we won’t see Stage 6."

* eNCA’s Heidi Giokos reports.