Eskom says load-shedding will be suspended from 21:00 on Friday as seven generation units have returned to service.

A unit each at Kendal, Camden and Grootvlei power stations as well as two units each at Majuba and Matimba power stations have returned to service.

Overnight, two units at Majuba Power Station tripped and a further unit was shut down for emergency repairs.

Furthermore, a unit each at Grootvlei and Tutuka power stations tripped. Of the five units, two units have since returned to service.  

Total breakdowns currently amount to 14 960 MW while planned maintenance is 3 345 MW of capacity.

South Africa was hit by a renewed bout of load-shedding this week due to more power station outages, with Eskom now investigating the possibility of sabotage in some of the breakdowns.  

Earlier this week, a team that had been working on the cooler fans at Matimba dropped an extension cord on to the transformer of the station’s unit 2.

A "flash" resulted, which tripped the station board and shut down all cooling to units 1, 2 and 3.

"We have difficulty in believing this is entirely coincidental," Eskom CEO André de Ruyter said in a briefing on Thursday.

Then, a pylon collapsed without warning near the Lethabo power station in Vereeniging on Wednesday - which according to senior Eskom sources, the clearest indication yet of a deliberate campaign to sabotage the country's electricity supply.