Load shedding: South Africans face cold, dark winter with no end in sight

A cold and dark winter is on the cards for South Africans despite the many attempts by the government to eradicate load shedding and save Eskom’s sinking ship.

Earlier this week, President Cyril Ramaphosa urged citizens to switch off their geysers to help reduce load shedding and limit the stages.

There has been little to no improvement in power while the constant load shedding continued after the appointment of the Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.

Cold winter looms

Eskom also warned it will be a very tough six months for South Africans as it grapples with more tripping units at power stations while briefing the parliament’s standing committee on Tuesday.

Tips for warming up during load shedding

Nicolette Martins has come up with ways of surviving the long power cuts. She said she used a 2l bottle as a warm water bottle when it gets cold.

She said hot water out of the tap worked wonders when the power was out and she couldn’t boil water.

“The extra costs are killing us. We have to pay more towards petrol for the generators, extra for gas and electricity,” she said.

READ: Ramaphosa’s Freedom Day speech: ‘No electricity, no freedom’

“We don’t switch our geysers on and off, because it takes too much power when it has to reheat.”

Gas cooking or braai

Martins said they had gotten used to cooking with gas or opted to braai many nights. She said she boiled water on the gas stove to make coffee and charged her phone in the car.

“Because I have curly hair, I wash it and air dry my hair with the air vents of my car,” she said. Mary Ann Heck said she didn’t see the point of the electricity minister.

“The electricity minister was just another appointment that nothing will come from, and we have to pay for,” she said.

Harsh winter ahead

Polelo Maimela said the winter without electricity will be harder on some people than others.

“It’s going to be hectic for us. We are already hitting stage 6 regularly,” he said, adding he was most concerned about households with infants and small children.

“They are not supposed to be exposed to the cold and dark.”

Ramaphosa was ‘failing SA’

Maimela said Ramaphosa was failing South Africa.

“Just two months ago we got a new minister and so far he hasn’t done anything for us. We still have load shedding and sabotage.

“How possible is that the pylons have been situated there for years and soon after his appointment, they start falling.”

Maimela said something was fishy. “Electricity is our main source of heat. Without power, we will freeze.

It’s like living in rural areas, where you return to basics such as fire to warm up. But fire is dangerous, it’s not the solution,” he said, adding that solar power and gas were too expensive for his budget.

No legal framework to fix load shedding

Political analyst Piet Croucamp said the electricity minister was disempowered because there wasn’t any statutory and legislative framework he worked according to.

“In other words, he can do nothing. There goes three months of salary to someone who can’t change anything,” he said.

Croucamp said by the looks of things, we should prepare for the worse.

“It isn’t getting any better.”