The past week was particularly bad for business and consumers who experienced repeated power cuts across the country. Gautrain’s head offices in Johannesburg, where one of the country’s biggest infrastructure projects is being planned, experienced three power cuts on Monday between 8am and 8pm.
But even residents of small towns found power supply intermittent. Eskom spokesperson Sipho Neke confirmed that power cuts were national and were “equitable and rational”. Which means that everyone suffers equally.
Neke said the deteriorating power-supply situation resulted from a decrease in Eskom’s capacity because of both planned and unplanned station maintenance. Demand was also higher after the holiday season, as many factories reopened.
Even Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana entered the fray, according to Sapa, and sent questions in a letter to Eskom chief executive Jacob Maroga on Wednesday.
“We have noted with concern that the load-shedding practice by Eskom is having a devastating impact on, inter alia, service delivery by government entities, is causing serious prejudice to the private sector and negatively affects the lives of many of the people of South Africa on a daily basis,” Sapa quoted from Mushwana’s letter.
Mushwana wants to know what steps Eskom is taking to ensure emergency centres such as hospitals and police stations are not affected, and what is being done to prevent traffic accidents as a result of traffic lights not working. He also asks what compensation will be available for those who suffer damages or inconvenience as a result of the power cuts, what measures Eskom has put in place to prevent cuts, and steps to tackle underlying reasons for the cuts, Sapa said. The protector could conduct an investigation, depending on Eskom’s answers to the questions.
The M&G also tried to send questions to Eskom’s media desk, but it was experiencing a blackout and so could not receive them before our deadline.
Instead, we’ve compiled a list of questions we think you should be asking.
Why don’t we talk about power cuts or blackouts instead of “load-shedding”?
Eskom prefers to use the term “load-shedding”, but this hides the seriousness of the problem.
Why weren’t more power stations built before our generating capacity ran out?
You can blame this one on the government, which was reluctant to spend money when generation capacity was still available. But it takes at least five years to build a coal-fired power station, so this is not acceptable.
What steps is Eskom taking to minimise power interruptions?
The theory behind load-shedding is that it’s better to experience a controlled outage of power, for a shorter time, than to have an uncontrolled power cut of uncertain duration. But it’s becoming difficult to tell the difference.
How long will this situation continue?
Eskom says the situation will continue for the next five years at least, or until the Medupi coal-fired power station is built. That’s a long time to wait.
What can consumers do to cope better with blackouts?
Switch off your geyser at peak periods, switch to solar water heating and/or get an insulation blanket. Use gas for cooking. Make sure candles, matches and torches or camping lights are in a convenient place.