Where were you when the lights went out?
If the guys with their fingers on the switches would stick to the schedule, we would all be a little less angry.
IT was Friday night but any plans that I had to relax with a glass of something red and smooth went out the window.
Eskom’s load shedding schedule indicated that the lights would be off and my turn would begin right in the middle of my favourite TV Who Dunnit. I thought that was a little unfair but as there was nothing that could be done about it, the best thing to do was to be prepared.
Once a girl guide always a girl guide, so it was time to gather the supplies for the siege of Northdene. Candles? Yes. Matches? Yes. Boiling water in flask? Yes. Torch? Yes. Cell charged and panic button active? Yes. Right. All set.
As 8.30pm was a while away I settled down to watch something on telly but in the back of my mind was the coming shutdown and the prospect of very early to bed on a Friday night.
So I decided to watch my favourite Who Dunnit, nonetheless, because even half a loaf is better than none. I waited and watched and watched and waited, waiting for the shock of sudden blindness for a few moments while fumbling for the torch, seeking that beam of light to warm the injustice of having to pay for incompetence. I waited some more.
Nothing happened. No sudden darkness, no lights out, no load shedding, well not in my neck of the woods anyway.
And as Hamlet said, “there’s the rub.” If the guys with their fingers on the switches would stick to the schedule, we would all be a little less angry. It’s the unpredictability of it all that is so infuriating. I admit that I was mightily peeved. My battle stations were all for nothing. But there was more to come and it got worse. By midday on Saturday the neighbourhood was well in to its second load shedding stint for the morning. Unannounced and unscheduled, of course.
It was pleasing that the local supermarket had a generator but the rest of the shops in the mall were in darkness. It must be Murphy’s Law because once things start going wrong they escalate.
I was about to pay for my groceries at the till when Eskom came to say hello, and as the electricity kicked in and the generator shut down the supermarket was plunged into blackness for a few seconds, but it was enough to shut down the tills, so all the purchases had to be unpacked from the packets in the trolley and rescanned once the tills had rebooted.
Most people were resigned to this Banana Republic scenario. Complaining would not do much. It was not the supermarket’s fault.
By late Saturday afternoon the hoax machine had begun with a report that there was to be a national blackout on Saturday night. All power in South Africa would be shut down from 8.30pm to 10. 30pm. Eskom announced online that the report was false and stated that the reason for the load shedding was to avoid a blackout.
At a family braai we all lamented the chaotic state of our country and tut-tutted about the R22.8million annual salary paid for this debacle. All of us complained, except one person on a holiday from Malawi. In this neighbouring country power outages are an every day occurrence and Eskom (that’s right) proclaims that they strive to provide electricity all day every day. Is this where we are heading?
How much worse can this get? Imagine the loss in revenue to shops and businesses who rely on Christmas sales to balance the books.
How many businesses, hanging on by a thread in these harsh economic times, will find it impossible to open come 2015? What potential investment has been lost as prospective international investors run for cover? How many jobs will be lost?
I am sure there is an economist who can spell out the magnitude of the damage this little power debacle has cost the country. And Eskom says we do not have a power crisis? Only when the system collapses totally, will there be a crisis.
For all Eskom’s optimism, I’m stocking up on gas, firewood, candles and charcoal, because we’re in this for the long haul.
