South Africa's Eskom has managed to restore eight units at power plants after implementing its highest stage of controlled power cuts early on Sunday, the power utility said after multiple failures at Majuba and Camden power stations over the weekend.

Power was abruptly cut to large parts of South Africa Sunday and the national energy provider announced days of power blackouts in Africa’s most industrialised nation. The announcement came as a surprise after positive statements from Eskom suggesting years of crippling power cuts of sometimes up to 12 hours a day may soon be over.

South Africa’s power utility, Eskom, has announced that it will cut 3,000 megawatts of power in controlled outages, known locally as load-shedding, from 5:30 pm (15:30 GMT) on Saturday until further notice,