Why do people not question the waste of electricity?

R M Kloepper writes:

[Sammi-Jo Botha’s column Load shedding is back to taunt us in Randburg Sun week ending 7 November refers.]

I read your above letter with big interest and I have the urge to tell you that I share your thoughts on this matter completely.

It happened from Sunday evening 2 November till Tuesday evening 4 November that Randpark Ext 4, it’s where I live, was put

in to darkness.

I never bothered to phone City Power to find out the reason for this because of the suspicion that I get lied to anyway.

But what about our business world? Why has nobody ever questioned the waste of electricity there?

Every time I am in the car driving home – sometimes after 11pm – I see all these lit floors of office blocks and I wonder why these lights are not switched off after hours.

The same applies to advertising boards and neon lights.

Do we really need them switched on during the whole night?

And what about all the street lights that are switched on during the day and the Sports ground lights that are turned on when nobody is

on the playing fields…

I do have a street light right in front of my driveway and noticed in January 2014 that the light didn’t switch off during the day.

I did report it, but don’t think it has been attended to, yet.

I also have the suspicion that a lot of people only think they have the ‘know how’ but to run a big electricity business needs more then just to think ‘we can do it.’

In a way I even feel offended by all the excuses that are given to the public because it means that my logic thinking is been doubted.

Who on earth came up with the idea of calling Jhb [Johannesburg] a ‘World Class City’? I think it needs far more to reach that status.