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"description": "Daily Maverick is an independent online news publication and weekly print newspaper in South Africa.\r\n\r\nIt is known for breaking some of the defining stories of South Africa in the past decade, including the Marikana Massacre, in which the South African Police Service killed 34 miners in August 2012.\r\n\r\nIt also investigated the Gupta Leaks, which won the 2019 Global Shining Light Award.\r\n\r\nThat investigation was credited with exposing the Indian-born Gupta family and former President Jacob Zuma for their role in the systemic political corruption referred to as state capture.\r\n\r\nIn 2018, co-founder and editor-in-chief Branislav ‘Branko’ Brkic was awarded the country’s prestigious Nat Nakasa Award, recognised for initiating the investigative collaboration after receiving the hard drive that included the email tranche.\r\n\r\nIn 2021, co-founder and CEO Styli Charalambous also received the award.\r\n\r\nDaily Maverick covers the latest political and news developments in South Africa with breaking news updates, analysis, opinions and more.",
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"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The suspension of load shedding – which had been at Stage 3 – followed the recovery of more than 3,000 megawatts of generation capacity and replenishment of sufficient emergency reserves in the past 44 hours, the power utility said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rolling blackouts, implemented at 2pm on Friday, 7 March, and initially set to be lifted at 5am on Monday, come after 2,700MW of generation capacity had been lost last week – the third collapse in 30 days, with Eskom needing to restore 6,200MW by Monday.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eskom said teams are working diligently to restore 4,091MW to service by Monday. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At a media briefing on Saturday, Minister of Electricity and Energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa apologised for the “gross inconvenience” of load shedding, calling the recent power cuts a “significant setback” that risked eroding public confidence and South Africa’s economy.</span>\r\n\r\n<b>Read more:</b> <a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-03-08-its-unacceptable-something-must-give-ramokgopa-tells-sa-after-third-bout-of-load-shedding-in-30-days/?dm_source=dm_block_list&dm_medium=card_link&dm_campaign=main\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">‘It’s unacceptable; something must give,’ Ramokgopa tells SA after third bout of load shedding in 30 days</span></a>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Contributing factors in the latest bout of blackouts included an outage at Unit 2 at the Koeberg nuclear plant in Cape Town and operational disruptions at two units at the Kusile coal-fired plant in Mpumalanga, due to adverse weather conditions. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eskom CEO Dan Marokane said on Saturday that the combination of these issues at two big plants, plus an additional delay of 1,000MW to 1,500MW in returning capacity owing to missed maintenance deadlines, meant “you have no room to respond”.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The unplanned capability loss factor (unexpected losses) had risen from about 15,000MW in the middle of the week to 18,000MW on Friday, which triggered Stage 3 load shedding.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Sunday morning, Eskom reported that coal operations at Kusile were at optimal levels, with all units that were offline on Friday back in service, and that the recovery of Koeberg Unit 2 was well under way.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Eskom reassures the public that Koeberg Unit 2 remains safe,” Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said just before 10am on Sunday. “Planned maintenance outages aimed at preparing for winter and meeting regulatory and environmental licensing requirements continue.”</span>\r\n<h4><b>Eskom ‘addressing’ the challenge</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eskom said its Summer Outlook, published on 26 August 2024, remains unchanged. This anticipated no load shedding from 1 September 2024 to 31 March 2025, provided unplanned outages remained at or below 13,000MW.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We maintain our position that load shedding is largely behind us due to structural improvements in the generation fleet,” Mokwena said. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Read more:</b> <a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article_tag/eskom/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eskom news</span></a>\r\n\r\n<b>Read more:</b> <a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/eskom-intelligence-files-cartels/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eskom Intelligence Files</span></a>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her comments came after Ramokgopa said on Saturday that while he had utter trust in the Eskom CEO and board, he’d be going to “ground zero” – visiting the Kendal, Matimba, Lethabo, Camden, Kusile and Koeberg plants and and speaking to managers and employees – to find out what’s going on, as well as to boost morale.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“So, clearly there’s been areas of failure, and those areas require that we have an honest conversation,” he said. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mokwena added that “while baseload capacity remains constrained, our generation recovery plan is addressing this challenge. The dedicated efforts of our highly skilled staff remain unwavering.” </span><b>DM</b>",
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