Load shedding will be suspended between noon and 5pm on Friday to allow Parliament to pass a series of Appropriation Bills, Eskom said 

Spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said: “Eskom will also be required to utilise some emergency reserves during this period, thereby depleting some of the gains made over the past few days. In order to replenish these reserves, and prepare for the week ahead, stage 2 load shedding will resume at 5 pm this afternoon and continue until 10 pm on Sunday." While the country battles through stage two load shedding, Eskom said it's aware of outages in parts of Soweto caused by cable theft.

The utility said technical teams were at various sites on Friday morning working to repair network faults .It’s can't yet give an estimated time of restoration. South African's are having to put up with costly and frustrating blackouts in the middle of the current cold spell.

Eskom has called on everyone in the country to use less electricity when it is available. It’s also urging people not to put their laptops on sleep mode. It says it's best to turn off your PC's along with other appliances when not in use.