THE country continues to plunge into darkness with the persistent load shedding and the cold weather on Monday, 10 July and Tuesday, 11 July caused an increase in the demand for electricity.
As a result, stage 6 load shedding was implemented over the weekend to replenish the depleted emergency reserves to permit a possible reduction in the stages of load shedding in the coming week. However, on Sunday, 16 July, Eskom said stage 4 load shedding would be implemented until 5am on Monday, 17 July.
As if load shedding was not enough, residents in some parts of Gauteng had to deal with water cuts in the later part of the week as the system was recovering following maintenance by Rand Water to tie-in two valves between the A19 and B14 pipelines.
Water tankers were provided for areas that were not yet fully recovered such as the Meadowlands and Braamfischerville systems, the Crown Gardens reservoir, the Blairgowrie reservoir, the Linden 1 reservoir, as well as the Linden 2 tower.
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According to Rand Water, recovery of the system generally takes longer not only because of the magnitude of the shutdown, but also because of the complex nature of water systems. Load shedding has also impacted the recovery of certain areas as power outages affect pumping at the entity's systems.
In more piercing news, the torching of trucks in various parts of the country continues to be a hot topic.
As of Saturday, 15 July, police spokeswoman Brigadier Athlenda Mathe confirmed the arrests of two more suspects in connection with the torching of trucks in KZN, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.
She said the two suspects were arrested in Limpopo, bringing the total number of arrests to five.
In political news, the EFF was willing to work with the DA-led moonshot pact to oust the ANC if only the DA had invited them. This is what EFF leader, Julius Malema, had to say while interacting with the media in Sandton on Friday, 14 July.
And finally, the Bokke lost to New Zealand with 20- 35
