Cassim was speaking at a media briefing where various ministers provided an update on the state of the electricity crisis.

He says the funding support measures announced by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in his budget speech should ensure a reduction in the levels of load-shedding, reports SABC News.

National Treasury announced a R254 billion debt funding relief for Eskom over the next three years.

"With the flexibility that we now have on procurement within the governance rules, there should be no excuses from an Eskom perspective, or from a generation perspective. I don't see why load-shedding should not be reduced going forward.

"We must not accept Stage 6 [load-shedding], we need these stages to come down," he said.

The decision by the Finance Minister that Eskom doesn’t have to borrow for the next three years allows Eskom to release capital expenditure funds three years in advance, not only for generation but also for transmission and distribution.

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The head of the Project Management Office in the Presidency, Rudi Dicks, said the debt relief will also allow Eskom to procure more generation capacity.

"The changes that we’ve made around new generation capacity, particularly through the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), are that Eskom is not the only entity responsible for the build of new generation capacity.

"We have the ability to procure new generation through IPPs [Independent Power Producers].  It’s important to understand that this is not necessarily a new built by Eskom but the ability for Eskom to procure additional generation," he said, according to sanews.gov.za. 

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