State power producer Eskom hasn’t had to implement loadshedding in seven days, it says that recently reports about a total blackout in South Africa is totally untrue.

In a statement released yesterday afternoon, Eskom noted that the information about an imminent blackout has been doing the rounds online for sometime, and “is a malicious hoax aimed at creating unnecessary panic.”

Eskom’s Acting Chief Executive Brian Molefe explained that there are a number of systems in place that would prevent something like that from happening.

“The national power system has multiple layers of manual and automatic protection in place in order to prevent a national blackout from occurring. Load shedding is one of the mechanisms implemented by the System Operator to protect the power system. The eventuality of a blackout occurring is therefore remote.”

Eskom iterated that the power system is currently stable, which is why loadshedding hasn’t been implemented for about a week. In the same breath, it urged people to still use electricity sparingly.

Today Eskom also said that it will start cutting off municipalities from today who hasn’t reached a payment agreement to rectify their accounts that are in arrears.

“In an effort to curb the non-payment of electricity by several municipalities, Eskom had earlier notified defaulting municipalities and their electricity customers that should payment plans not be signed and honoured, their electricity supply would be interrupted during the morning and evening peak periods from the 5th June.”

It noted that it has reached an agreement with the majority of municipalities, leaving just two under threat of having their supply cut in the morning and evening peak times – Maluti-A-Phufong and Ngwathe. Those municipalities who have repayment agreements will be cut off if they don’t cough up.