(Bloomberg) -- Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., the state-owned company that supplies about 95 percent of South Africa's electricity, said it will cut 2,000 megawatts from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday as the country enters the 10th consecutive day of scheduled blackouts.
“This is due to a shortage of capacity,” Eskom said in an emailed statement late Friday. The power cuts are “implemented to protect the system and to prevent a total collapse of the system or a national blackout,” it said.
The power outages are hampering business and harming productivity. Loss-making and mired in debt, Eskom has been been described by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as the biggest single threat to South Africa's economy.
To contact the reporter on this story: Amogelang Mbatha in Johannesburg at ambatha@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net, Renee Bonorchis, Steve Geimann
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