After taking the shock decision to ramp up loadshedding to Stage 6 in the early hours of Sunday, February 23 - having declared Stage 3 on Saturday - Eskom is aiming to bring a halt to rotational power cuts by the end of the week.

Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa described the return of loadshedding for the second time in February as a setback.

Nevertheless, he again insisted that the country was "within touching distance" of being able to declare a permanent end to loadshedding, which has plagued South Africa for nearly 20 years.

Eskom CEO Dan Marokane said the decision to implement loadshedding on February 22 followed the tripping of all six units at the Majuba power station, owing to the "domino effect" that followed the overload of a transformer at a unit that provided auxiliary support to other units at the power station.

The loss of 3 200 MW, then triggered a trip of a Medupi unit as a result of under frequency on the system.

Then, at about 1:00 on Sunday morning, units at Camden tripped after a hydraulic valve failed, which affected the water-cooling plant.

This resulted in Stage 6 being declared.

Eskom plans to provide an update to the loadshedding outlook on Sunday evening but indicated that cuts were likely to continue for the rest of the week.

Diesel and pumped hydro reserves had been used extensively in the run up to the declaration of Stage 3 and Stage 6, and Eskom said both now needed to be replenished, especially at Ankerlig and the private Avon and Dedisa plants.

Chairperson Dr Mteto Nyati also indicated that the latest breakdowns pointed to the need for a shift in maintenance focus from the main plant at the coal stations to the balance of plant.

At the time that loadshedding was declared, Eskom had some 7 500 MW out for planned maintenance, including another extended refueling and maintenance outage of Koeberg Unit 1.

Eskom was also in the process of transitioning three Kusile units from operating using temporary stacks that bypassed key pollution control systems to the main stack.

Only Unit 3 had been recommissioned and Eskom said it would not compromise on meeting the end of March deadline for reintegrating the other two units, even if this resulted in "tough" decisions for the system.