South African electricity provider Eskom announced Friday the "Stage 4" power cuts would run on Friday until 2200 local time (2000 GMT) and "Stage 2" outages would be implemented until 0700 (0500 GMT) on Saturday and Sunday.
Eskom said later in the day that it would reduce power cuts during the weekend due to lower demand.
Eskom chief executive Andre de Ruyter, said Friday that he had personally briefed President Cyril Ramaphosa on an ongoing electricity crisis.
"We fully briefed the president on the situation. ... We discussed a number of potential options," de Ruyter told a news conference, refusing to divulge what was discussed.
Eskom implements scheduled power cuts, called "load-shedding," to prevent a total blackout and replenish emergency generation reserves.
Ramaphosa's government has been trying to reform Eskom to make it more efficient, but progress has been slow.
Along with the labor action against it, Eskom has also been a focus of corruption hearings involving so-called "State Capture" - a scheme under which individuals with positions and connections allegedly looted the state-owned enterprise of massive sums.
