Two Bits – October 4, 2013

The construction company went bust, absconded, whatever, then Steffanuti Stocks stepped in and everyone thought that’s okay, it’s in safe hands now.
I seem to recall the project leaders telling us confidently that the job would be all wrapped up by July this year. Well here we are at the start of October and my ordinary civvie eye tells me that job has a very long way to go. And before someone says it’s because of the strikes/rain/ tokoloshe, I say that would be stretching a point beyond reason. But okay, what is what is and I hope it’s ready by next Easter. But I won’t hold my breath.
Then there was much humming and hawing about the entrance road itself, from the interchange, past Lifestyle to the Junction traffic circle. It sat on council’s agenda for six years. First they didn’t have the money, then they found it. Good.
Well, the process itself is a bit like going to the dentist for root canal. You know it’ll be good for you in the long run, but it’s hell getting there. Because the road has now been cut down to single lane to let the construction vehicles do their thing, there were traffic jams last week and it was in the quietest time of the year. It wasn’t helped by the traffic cops having a road block slap bang in the middle. I wonder who thought that up!
The council’s Sandeep Oudheram says not to worry, they’ll open the road up in time for holiday season. Just to let you know, Sandeep, that the whole of Ballito sincerely hopes you keep to your word. Or else there are going to be a lot of very uncool things said about you, come peak season.
Years ago, Ballito’s first step towards addressing a growing traffic problem was building that silly little traffic circle opposite the BP. Then they built the big circle on the M4, between the Junction and Lifestyle. Terrific, a circle that works. Now I hear that the circle is going to be torn out and replaced with traffic lights. I really, really hope I heard wrong, but time will tell.
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How many lights, fridges, computers, toasters, geysers etc have been lost by the power outages we’ve had since, well, since electricity was invented? I swear, the lights go on and off so much the North Coast is like Las Vegas.
Here’s a snippet of news that should have local government trembling. The public protector has made a landmark decision, awarding damages to a Cape Town resident whose household appliances were destroyed during a power failure.
In the case report, titled “Power to the People”, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela upheld a claim of R18 407 by a Ms M Taliep of Lansdowne, against the Cape Town City Council.
Taliep claimed that in February 2011 several appliances, including a laptop, a phone charger, a fridge, a microwave oven, a telephone charger, a washing machine, and an energy saving light bulb were either destroyed or damaged as a result of an electrical power surge.
The city’s insurance department rejected Taliep’s claim. The power failure, it said, had been caused by the theft of equipment from a substation. The city said since it had “no control” over criminal activities, it could not be held accountable.
But Mandonsela ruled that the failure to maintain the substation amounted to maladministration. Madonsela cited section 25 of the Electricity Regulation Act, pointing out that it placed a burden of rebuttal of presumption of negligence on the city in the event of a dispute arising out of damages caused by the supply of electricity.
Further citing vandalism statistics, she said that such acts were a common occurrence in the area and, therefore, something the council could and should have foreseen and addressed.
Well, Madonsela had better brace herself for a flood of complaints from the North Coast. It used to be that the power went out when the wind got stronger than a breeze, but today not only do we pay more for electricity than Cape Town, but the local grid has a long way to go to be brought up to even their standard.

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The rain was pouring and there was a big puddle in front of the pub. A ragged old man was standing there with a rod and hanging a string into the puddle. A tipsy-looking, curious gentleman came over to him and asked what he was doing.
‘Fishing,’ the old man said simply.
‘Poor old fool,’ the gentleman thought and he invited the ragged old man to a drink in the pub. As he felt he should start some conversation while they were sipping their whisky, the gentleman asked, ‘And how many have you caught?’
‘You’re the eighth,’ the old man answered.