The power system was constrained but stable on Thursday, Eskom said.

“However, should anything unexpected happen, we may need to go into load shedding,” the power utility’s media desk said.

“We urge consumers to use electricity sparingly throughout the day.”

Eskom earlier said on its Twitter page that there was a “medium probability” of power cuts during the day, and a high chance in the evening.

On Wednesday, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said Eskom was racing to recruit as many skilled people as possible, regardless of their skin colour.

Responding to questions in the National Assembly, he told MPs he was not aware of race-based retrenchments at Eskom, although there had been voluntary retrenchments.

“When it comes to the issue of retrenchments, there was a process of asking people to take voluntary retrenchments. That has since been stopped… because we want to retain as many skilled people as we possibly can.” SAPA