South Africa’s international bonds and the rand came under fresh pressure on Wednesday as fears grew of scheduled blackouts known as load shedding worsening over winter.

Longer-dated sovereign dollar-bonds fell the most, with the 2052 maturity dropping more than 1 cent to 82.4 cents in the dollar. The yield rose above 9%, its highest level in almost six months.

In early trade the rand weakened to a three-year low of R18.83 against the dollar.

South Africa’s struggling state utility Eskom told parliament on Tuesday that there would be a 45-day delay in returning a generating unit online, adding further pressure to the grid during winter when scheduled power cuts across most of the country are already more than 10 hours a day.