Eskom announced a fresh round of power outages this past week, however, one province with no load shedding remained. That, of course, is the Western Cape. In fact, even during the height of load reduction back in 2023 (330 days out in the year), the province was regularly able to get away with significantly lower stages than the rest of the country.
Now, Eskom has detailed why the province with no load shedding is able to perform the way it does. And the discrepancy between it and other provinces. Specifically, the state-owned entity cites fewer illegal electricity connections and less theft/vandalism.
THE PROVINCE WITH NO LOAD SHEDDING
Eskom introduced load shedding as a system-wide measure when there’s insufficient capacity to meet overall electricity demand, says the utility. In so doing, it is able to protect important infrastructural equipment. Therefore preventing more extensive outages – like substation fires, which are common in Gauteng – by temporarily preventing overloading.
Moreover, Eskom’s group executive Monde Bala, says illegal electricity connections, meter bypassing, theft/vandalism also contributes to overloading the network. Combine that with typically higher consumption during winter, when consumers use heaters and geysers to keep warm, and you have higher chances of load shedding.
GAUTENG THREE-TIMES WORSE
As you can see from the Eskom graphic (up top), Gauteng is 30% more likely to suffer from load shedding than Western Cape. Likewise, Limpopo and Mphumalanga are 22% higher. Which is ironic considering this is the heart land of South Africa’s coal-fired energy reserves.
Meanwhile the province with no load shedding is working hard to draw energy sustainably and remove itself from the Eskom grid all together. In response, Eskom says it will install 7.2-million ‘smart meters’ to help reduce losses and enable safer “load limiting” across the country.
THEFT AND VANDALISM
In turn, theft and vandalism remain significant threats to the continuous supply of electricity in South Africa. Between April 2024 and February 2025, Eskom says infrastructure vandalism and theft cost R221 million. Thankfully, this is down from R271 million in the same period stretching from 2023-2024.
While the lowest levels are in the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape respectively.
DO YOU THINK LOAD SHEDDING IS DUE TO VANDALISM?
Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1.
Subscribe to The South African website’s newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.
