Saturday night is likely to be a candlelit affair for many South Africans after Eskom announced that load shedding was the likely scenario after 17:00.
"If things remain as they are we will go into load shedding," Eskom deputy spokesperson Dikatso Mothae told News24 shortly before 13:00.
"There is constraint and a high likelihood to go into load shedding."
She said the power cut was currently scheduled to be implemented between 17:00 and 22:00.
"We are recovering from the events that have taken place over the last few days," said Mothae in explaining the reason behind level two load shedding.
It needed to be established which units needed to go for maintenance, as well as if there were others which needed attention. Coal delivery had also been affected, she said.
On Friday evening, the Department of Public Enterprises released a statement in which it announced that wage negotiations for Eskom workers, who want a salary increase, were to resume and that parties had agreed to work together to ensure the security of electricity supply.
This followed a second consecutive day of load shedding.
Mothae told Fin24 at the time, that some power station workers were being intimidated to prevent them from going to work, with sporadic pickets taking place.
"Such challenges might lead to unstable supply," she said previously adding: "There is also a risk [due to] people who are deliberately tampering with machines as part of sabotaging operations.
Eskom was now looking to "move ahead" after these interruptions, Mothae said on Saturday.
News24