South African utility Eskom to reduce power cuts over the weekend

(Refiles to fix typo in the first paragraph)

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African state power company Eskom said on Friday it would reduce rolling power cuts over the weekend, as the utility continues to struggle with breakdowns of generating units.

The power outages would be reduced to “Stage 3” on Saturday and to “Stage 2” on Sunday morning, Eskom said in a short statement.

A further update would be provided on Sunday, it said.

The past week has seen some of the worst power cuts on record in Africa’s most industrialised nation, at least six hours a day for most households and often as much as 10 hours.

This week, Eskom has been implementing “Stage 4” outages, reducing supplies on the national grid by up to 4,000 megawatts (MW). Under Stages 3 and 2, the reductions are 3,000 and 2,000 MW, respectively.

(Reporting by Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo)

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