South African businesses and households were hit by scheduled power cuts for the first time in 10 months on Friday due to breakdowns at state power utility Eskom's coal-fired power stations.

During a media briefing Friday afternoon, Ramokgopa explained that several factors, including a number of unit failures at state power utility Eskom's power stations, led to a "perfect storm," triggering the necessity of initiating load-shedding.

Eskom reckons a regular addendum electrical CoC is not sufficient for a solar power system to be safe or legal when connected to its grid. Instead, it demands users pay tens of thousands of rand extra to meet its registration requirements.

South Africa's central bank cut its main lending rate by another 25 basis points to 7.50% as expected on Thursday, saying that while inflation appeared well-contained the medium-term outlook was more uncertain than usual.