In March, South Africa, was on the brink of a national electricity blackout. And we are there again. Why? At the time, I said that the reasons are myriad and what one chooses to believe, also depends on to whom one listens. Now, it seems, we are getting closer to the truth: acknowledgement not just of the failure to follow through on routine maintenance, but also of the “success” of the project to systematically loot state owned enterprises through the project now known as “state capture”. The Zondo Commission is unearthing hair raising facts. The Auditor General is doing the same and his staff are feeling the heat.
This is good news
In March, for the best past of two weeks, there was no power for between two to five, sometimes more, hours a day, and I noted that it was likely, that similar outages will happen again over the next few years. Well, it all began again last week and on Monday, the state-owned electricity utility went from stage 4 loadshedding to stage 6. Stage 2 means that in McGregor, we are without power for between 2,5 and 5 hours in a 24 hour period, scheduled in 2,5 hour slots. Stage 4 means that we are without power for 7,5 hours – also staggered. Stage 6, we had no idea. Suffice it to say that it was rather startling and the President has cut short a state visit to Egypt.
The March crisis was an act of God: Hurricane Idai, damaged power lines in Mocambique that supply electricity to South Africa. This time, it’s also weather related: wet coal accompanied by heavier than normal rainfall and flooding.
In my original post on Steemit, I noted
The electricity crisis notwithstanding, I have long aspired to being self-sufficient and off the grid – as I explained in this interview, so at the first real opportunity, i.e. when we owned our own home, and had the money, we installed a solar geyser. The next step was converting from electricity to cooking with gas. In this instance, it was as much to do with the cooking experience as with the repeated electricity cuts – at cooking time.
Loadshedding survivors’ guide
- Hope for the best, plan for the worst.
- Pour a glass of wine.
- Download – if you get your electricity direct from Eskom, the app. Or the schedules from your municipality. Prior to this most recent rash, we had loadshedding in 2015. I uninstalled the app a week before it struck in March; I’ve kept it up to date since.
- Have a sip of wine.
- Keep your sense of humour.
- Pour a glass of wine
- Fish out the old Telkom phone that has a handset connected with a cord; ensure that your stock of candles, lighting implements (matches, lighters, etc.) and solar jars are charged and close at hand.
- Have a sip of wine.
- Check the schedule and plan your day(s) in anticipation of the scheduled outage.
- Check the wine stash.
- Invite friends over and braai – timed for when the lights are off.
- Pour more wine.
- When it’s not practical (or sensible to have friends around and drink lots of wine):
- Cook by candles and solar jar (with wine).
- Clean: cupboards the you’ve not cleaned for a gazillion years; sort through the old clothes that you’ve not worn for a gazillion years – throw them out or sort them for a jumble sale, clothing swop or charity shop.
- Pour another glass of wine.
- Make sure all your devices are charged: assuming you’re using a laptop, and work for as long as you have juice. Uninterrupted without Facebook, WhtasApp, Discord – yes, you know who you are – and Instagram
- Get the next bottle of wine.
- Fish out and start working on the projects that you haven’t worked on because you’ve been distracted by the social media (your phone).
- Pour another glass of wine.
Until next time, be well
Fiona
The Sandbag House
McGregor, South Africa
Photo: Selma
Post Script
Originally posted in December 2019, but “re-constituted” for reasons I you will find here.
It’s also why some of the links may not work properly. If you come across one, please do comment and let me know so that I can fix it.
My apologies if you feel you’re being spammed. I’ve tried to stop the email notifications – will continue trying – but haven’t been successful….