Eskom was not expecting any power cuts next week although the system would still be tight, it said on Sunday.

“The situation is stable at the moment… at this stage there are no power cut planned,” spokesperson Andrew Etzinger said.

This was after the power utility had to introduce emergency rostered power cuts in certain areas, called load shedding, to prevent a collapse of the national power grid because coal supplies for electricity generators became wet in the past week’s persistent rain.

On Friday, Eskom CEO Brian Dames said the power cuts were a result of wet coal received from open-cast mines.

Etzinger said the system remain constrained, but the public would be informed if there were any changes.

When asked if the coal was still wet, he said there was still rain in Mpumalanga, where most of the mines are situated, but the situation was better than last week.