South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says he has asked the state electricity firm Eskom to shelve a tariff increase that was approved earlier this month.
The 18.65% tariff hike was due to be implemented from 1 April.
Speaking to delegates at a meeting of the governing ANC party, the president said this was not the right time to do it with households and businesses struggling because of regular scheduled power cuts.
He said the government was making every attempt to resolve the crisis – including a consideration to import power from neighbouring countries.
The country has been going through a power crisis for years, with daily scheduled blackouts in recent times.-BBC