Frequent power outages on KwaDukuza’s southern grid have had a widespread impact since they became a regular occurrence in December. Reports of expiring food and medicine, business losses, and damaged property have become commonplace in the community.

We asked our Facebook audience to share their experiences during the outages:

Vanita Sheriff – “My cellphone burnt and I had to throw away all my freezer stuff (two weeks’ worth of food).”

Samantha Fry – “My mental health is damaged. When life is extremely stressful as it is, then having to deal with no power and throwing away so much food pushed us all to the edge, I’m sure.”

Kleintjie van Loggerenberg – “KDM will keep doing this. If I could, I would just get an inverter for my fridge, but then that will pack up. KDM, time to wake up.”

Marcella Egan – “[Over the past few years] I have had to buy four kettles, three microwaves (thank goodness one was given to me), and two fridges. My son bought me a nice double-door fridge with an icemaker; it broke on 24 December 2023 (too expensive to repair and no guarantee). Now, the one I have is not freezing properly — a chest freezer. This has been happening since 2020 with all the electricity faults. As we all have had to do with the latest power being off, meat [going off] in the freezer. It is terrible that we have to live like this.”

Jessica Mignon D’Unienville – “Like many others, I had to throw away all my food in the fridge and deep freeze. Also at my boss’s house, two air-cons blew with all the power-on and power-off situations.”

Vijie Reddy – “My freezer stuff got spoilt — two bin bags full!”

Janelle Jackson – “I’ve been left traumatised regarding my food in the fridge, afraid of filling my fridge or buying fresh food.”

Emil von Broembsen – “My inverter packed up.”

Naomi van der Merwe – “Emotionally stressed waiting for the next power outage — not good!”

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