Eskom called on the public to report any suspicious behaviour around its sites to prevent further outages.

JOHANNESBURG - Eskom said that there'd been an increase of theft and vandalism of its electricity infrastructure in Gauteng during the lockdown.

The utility said that as a result of the crimes, it experienced power interruptions in recent days.

It called on the public to report any suspicious behaviour around its sites to prevent further outages.

Eskom said that it was working around the clock to prevent loadshedding caused by unforeseen circumstances.

The power utility has increased maintenance work during the lockdown lull. There's been a marked reduction in the demand for electricity as most businesses and companies had ground to a halt.

As part of its contingency plan to futureproof the state-owned utility, it has suspended its renewable energy source, including wind-generated power, and will also take its Koeberg unit offline at midnight.

Eskom's CEO Andre de Ruyter: "We have enough of a buffer period prior to the end of lockdown to fire up our old coal-fired power stations, make sure that they function well and do everything in our power to make sure that once lockdown is over and life returns to some sort of normality, we'll be able to meet the demand."