How Eskom’s rolling blackouts broke us

Rolling blackouts have changed South Africans, and not necessarily for the better.

When the lights go out, we roll our eyes, swear softly at Eskom and continue with what we are doing. What does this mean? It means that we are very far down the rabbit hole of accepting load shedding as just another part of life in South Africa.

We feel bitter and defeated 16 years down the line, after seeing the first red flag that the power grid was in trouble. Michelle Steyn, marketing director of Bateleur Brand Planning says one of the most alarming flags was the fact that Eskom built only one new and fully functional power station between 1991 and 2021, despite the sharp growth in demand for electricity.

“Factor in a disintegrating infrastructure, mismanagement and theft of funds and a lack of action against electricity theft. It is easy now to see South Africa was heading towards a diabolical storm even before 2007.”

She says it really struck her just how far this had gone in late 2022 when Bateleur Brand Planning, a research company, hosted a consumer discussion at a conference venue.

“We were hit with load shedding in the middle of the discussion and the room went completely black with approximately 50 people inside.

“The part that left me dumbstruck was when no single person stopped having group discussions. They all simply continued the conversation and turned on their cell phone torches until the generators kicked in. I realised we were deep into the rabbit hole.”

Steyn says we complain to each other about rolling blackouts or simply roll our eyes when the lights go out. Some take it a step further and protest or strike, which is often met with the threat of upping a stage or two on the load shedding schedule.

ALSO READ: Load shedding hours spiked 300% in 2022

No more fancy cars, now we have flashy solar systems

She has also noted that these days people no longer flaunt their fancy cars. Their most prized possession now is the fanciest inverter or solar setup.

According to The Vantage Point survey conducted by Bateleur in 2022, only 2% of South Africans can say that load shedding does not impact them.

“Unsurprisingly, this directly correlates with the people with a solar setup big enough to cover most of their household electricity requirements.”

What do the other 98% of South Africans have to deal with daily, and how do they mitigate blackouts, with a staggering 77% saying they were affected significantly?

This is how rolling blackouts make South Africans struggle every day:

• 53% say their mealtimes are disturbed by load shedding and women tend to worry about this more
• 51% say they experienced damaged equipment and household appliances
• 47% say they experienced additional stress and more so for Boomers than Millennials
• 45% say cellular networks become almost non-functional and they cannot make phone calls, especially in smaller, non-metropolitan provinces
• 43% say they had food in the refrigerator going off
• 39% were late for work due to traffic jams and Gauteng was significantly more likely to be affected
• 38% say load shedding reduced production capacity in business.

These are just some of the effects of rolling blackouts. It costs us in every aspect of life, such as mental health, personal finances, and the ability to work.

According to the survey many people try to get around the effects of rolling blackouts by using gas (57%), adjusting their daily routines (55%), ensuring they have an adequate number of battery-powered items (42%), using battery-powered light bulbs (39%), and simply having braais more often (21%).

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We cannot all afford enough alternatives

The research found that 18% of people currently use some sort of solar power, but only 20% of them say it covers everything.

“When factoring that into the South African population, only 4% of South Africans can say that they have enough solar energy to power an entire house. On average, people who have invested in solar energy spent almost R110 000.”

What about those with no solar? Steyn says 60% say they were likely to invest in solar, but the research indicates they are in for a bit of a surprise.

When asked how much they were willing to invest in solar, they revealed an average of just under R50 000, compared to the average of R110 000 people with solar spent. Their expectations of cost are very different to the reality of what solar energy costs.

Steyn says she wanted to add a positive conclusion to this article, but that would be foolish.

“Yes, a wide array of solutions to the problem have been offered up. However, any plausible solution seems to be met with resistance. South African citizens have taken a passive approach, most likely because they do not know what to do.”

However, she says she can offer that in life, change is possible, but only if it comes with a willingness and acceptance to move forward.

Socrates once said, “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new”.