JOHANNESBURG, Feb 20 (Reuters) - South African state utility Eskom expects to implement "Stage 6" power cuts until the peak electricity demand hours on Wednesday evening, its chief executive Andre de Ruyter said.
"By Thursday, (we expect) we will then be able to start phasing that down to load-shedding Stage 4 with load-shedding Stage 3 being reached by the weekend," de Ruyter told a media briefing, referring to rolling power cuts.
Eskom on Sunday said it would implement Stage 6 power cuts until further notice.
The company has been implementing the worst power cuts in South Africa on record, leaving households in the dark, disrupting manufacturing and hurting businesses of all sizes.
Stage 6 power cuts require up to 6,000 megawatts to be shed from the national grid and mean 10 hours a day without power for many South African households.