South Africans may be enjoying the best two weeks of 2023, with the lowest levels of load shedding so far recorded in winter. But that joy will be short-lived, according to Eskom boss Vally Padayachee.

When Eskom introduced Stage 6 load shedding in the summer months, the nation feared the worst, with talks of Stage 10 and even a collapse of Eskom's fragile grid.

But Padayachee says the winter of our discontent is still coming.

"We are not out of the woods yet," he said this week.

Padayachee is the current head of the National Rationalised Specifications Association and reportedly one of three candidates shortlisted for the position of Group CEO.

He totally ruled out the possibility of the grid collapsing, saying load shedding was not the only available tool to manage Eskom's grid.

But even if new generating capacity is returned to the grid, the power utility is expected to implement lower stages of load shedding for another two to three years.

"We must just give credit to the Eskom generation team, with the difficult circumstances, they do quite well," he said.

"Because I can assure you that, with our analyst's perspective and as a professional engineer myself, we are not out of the woods yet.

"We haven't gotten into the middle of winter, which is the third week of July or the first week of August. I can tell you now that we cannot guarantee that we wouldn't go beyond Stage 6 or beyond Stage 8."

In one of the busiest weeks for Eskom bosses, they appeared before parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts and secured approval for the state to take over R254 billion, or Eskom's R422 billion debt.

Padayachee told Newzroom Afrika that even with new generating capacity from renewable energy sources, lower stages of load shedding will continue for another two years.

Meanwhile, President Cyril Ramaphosa told a gathering of the New Global Financing Pact Summit in Paris, France, that South Africa's Just Energy Transition will cost an estimated R1.8 trillion.