Though the initial contractions may have spawned hilarious memes when loadshedding first came alive in 2008, 14 years on and the “Eksdom” jocularity is not so funny anymore. With the power utility’s dirty laundry hung out to dry in its own Annual report (released December 23) and the CEO Andre de Ruyter signalling his looming departure in the midst of rolling blackouts, SA is, to be civil about it, eyeball-deep in the dwang.
Paddling up the creek without a paddle, as it were, and one’s sympathies must go to those whose loadshedding agonies are compounded by the double whammy of load reduction. Up to half a day in the dark is bad enough. Now add a few more hours to the dank on account that your municipality hasn’t been squaring their dues with Eskom, and, like our fellow Karoomen up in Graaff-Reinet, you’re itching for a stiff Agava in frustration. Or as the Daily Maverick reported, picketing outside the municipal offices, temporarily barricading the N9 highway before returning home to wait “for the water truck to arrive and the electricity to resume.” Wait. Scratch that – with these water outages, residents of eRhafu languish in something of a tricameral injustice.
The Eastern Cape’s defaulting municipalities owe Eskom over R3-billion and things will only get gloomier before there is any light at the end of this tunnel. Affected areas include, inter alia, Burgersdorp, Steynsburg, eKomani (formerly Queenstown) and Cradock. Just down the road, Noupoort is at the mercy of water trucks from Colesberg which in turn is also facing water interruptions in areas like Zwelitsha. With pumps empty not so long ago, de Aar motorists were forced to buy fuel from nearby towns. They too are experiencing water shortages.
Consequently, businesses have suffered a serious knock. With no end in sight, those with the means and who know what’s good for their bottom line have thus noted the irreconcilable differences and are moving on towards renewables. Corporates are tripping over themselves to sign the divorce papers. According to BusinessTech, Shoprite, “South Africa’s biggest retailer increased its solar photovoltaic system capacity by 82% to 26,606kWp from the previous year – achieved via 20 soccer fields worth of solar panels.”
Inside Colesberg’s own Shoprite store, branch manager Nandipha Phetlhu is trying her utmost to ensure a delightful shopping experience to her customers. Always mingling on the floor lending a helping hand, she does, however, concede that the loadshedding has been a nuisance. “Depending on the loadshedding schedule,” she says, “we are spending at least R11 000 to fill up the 400litre back-up generator a week, sometimes twice that amount.” Also, their generator only powers up the tills, lights and some of the fridges she says but not the industrial ovens in the bakery for instance. Although generally of high spirits, there is an air pessimism and a surrendered shrug as Phetlhu takes eParkeni through what this means especially for her valued shopper. No bread sometimes. And when there is, the bread machine is redundant and it’s just not good for anybody.
At the SaveMore Spar a little further on JP Wilson is not having an easy time either. The new business – barely a year old – looked to rake in the profits, then loadshedding struck hard in December. Bouts of stage 6 rolling blackouts meant that his R150 000 generator was being stretched to its paces. Though it too keeps the essential fridges, tills and lights on, it doesn’t sustain everything in the shop. For that, Wilson says, he will need roughly twice that amount for a R350 000 generator. He is however noticeably perplexed by how, despite the blackouts, his municipal bill has allegedly stayed more or less the same. The two weeks of stage 6 cuts during the festive season notwithstanding, he insists that his monthly dues still went up by some R10 000.
With the minerals and energy department’s seeming “anything but renewables” attitude, blackouts are not the only reason why some companies are leaving Eskom in the dust. BusinessTech: “Heineken South Africa also launched its solar power plant with 14 000 panels that could track the sun. Heineken’s solar program relates more to its goal to reach net zero status by 2030 instead of leaving Eskom, but this shows that solar energy is also far better for the planet than Eskom’s current coal-powered fleet.” Amongst the green community, and in the face of climate change, coal is sneered at as a “dirty” source of fuel with a massive carbon footprint thus some corporates have opted to ditch it as part of their social and environmental responsibility.
That the more severe stages of loadshedding often entail a cranky cellphone connection also means that many are pursuing other avenues to a more reliable signal. If data is considered a basic human right, does it not then naturally follow – even precede – that a network connection should be one too?
With last year’s fibre cable installations going up in Colesberg, this has become a viable option provided that the monthly bills aren’t too steep an ask. With data prices as ridiculously high as is, perhaps this could be the unexpected game-changer. Running a tourism business, entrepreneurs like Mbulelo Kafi can ill-afford being disconnected from a Zoom meeting. In “a global economy where money is made and lost around the clock” neither can public departments or entities particularly where, post-Covid lockdowns, working from home has become part of “the new normal.”
That’s the calamitous nub of loadshedding; it is a potentially catastrophic disruption to everybody’s livelihood. Food goes off. Appliances blow. Online students struggle, accomodation facilities don’t have hot water for guests and the economy soon suffers and by extension the citizens.
As eParkeni writes, stage 6 loadshedding persists “until further notice.” There are news reports of Phoenix residents barricading roads up in Durban. Psychologists lament the toll that these outages have on a segment of the population’s mental health. Although the City of Cape Town tourism industry is enjoying a bumper season, many smaller businesses aren’t able to fully reap the rewards. Cunning syndicates are taking full advantage of the situation, stealing cable like taking candy from a baby. The news that President Cyril Ramaphosa has cancelled a trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos has been met by cynicism with TimesLive analyst Eusebius Mckaiser commenting: “Last year President Ramaphosa cut his UK-US trip short to come home and “deal with stage 6 load-shedding.” He returned, and the energy crisis worsened. Not going to Davos isn’t leadership. Mr Ramaphosa is ineffective whether he’s home, in the US, UK, or Switzerland.”
His colleague, Ndumiso Ngcobo wonders; “what difference will Ramaphosa’s presence in the country do to help the energy situation? Probably the same nonexistent presence in Davos would have made to the citizens of SA.”
Adding insult to injury, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) has approved a Eskom tariff hike to 18.65% for 2023 and 12.74% for 2024 leading to various political parties and civil society groups calling for a national shutdown. Entities as generally in disagreement as the African Transformation Movement, Economic Freedom Fighters, Democratic Alliance, Action SA, SA Federation of Trade Unions are all speaking with a unified voice on the energy situation, particularly in as far as it affects the poor.
Just on eParkeni’s doorstep a frustrated landlady is cooking on an open fire outside. A neighbour does laundry by hand because there’s no power for the washing machine. The cooldrink from the nearby spaza is hardly chilled, this at a time when a horrendous heatwave “igqats’ ubhobhoyi” – frying the woodpecker, if you will – throughout the Northern Cape and there’s no power to start up so much as a fan.
There are those peddlers of doom who darkly warn that this is only the beginning of the end of a once world-class energy supplier and, by default, of an entire country’s welfare. From how grim the current snippets look on the ground, we can only hope that history will ultimately prove them dead wrong
A masterf account and view. How complete would our trackings be if other citizen journalists from locates everywhere could help paint the tapestry on energy, living costs, Bd imate changes we are living with.