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Through My Eyes

Through My Eyes

Date: 2014-11-07
My very expensive fridge has been beeping all night my recent insomniac stint allowed me to listen with growing anger The last load shedding exercise cost me a couple of thousand Rand as both my Italian coffee maker popped and my expensive fridge cooling system exploded, flooding my kitchen.

I am trying to be objective and levelheaded. I am trying to wrap my brain around why I should not bitch and whine about the load shedding injustice when nearly one and a half million South Africans still do not have access to electricity - any electricity at all.

But the cost of the damage the load shedding does to my office automation, computers and even my household appliances, is very hard to justify. But I don't want to be a whinge bag like the tedious auntie at the halfway house in Zimbali who decided that it was the waiter's fault and bitched angrily that she could not have a coffee. As a company we have taken measures and now are proud owners of a very noisy and environmentally unfriendly generator. We have made sure that we stay in business regardless of Eskom and their shenanigans.

Earlier this year Eskom was given permission to raise electricity tariffs next year above the 8% previously granted and with higher power tariffs are likely to stoke annual inflation, which at 6.6% is making us all poor. The reality is that we cannot grow the economy without a steady and reliable access to power. However to have any real chance of plugging its funding gap, economists have estimated that Eskom will need to increase its tariffs by at least another 13% per year for the next five years.

But the worry is that this situation will make South Africa increasingly uncompetitive on world markets. It certainly won't help inflation or manufacturers already hit by rising labour costs and a low demand for their products. Nor consumers for that matter, who are struggling with rising food and fuel costs, high levels of personal debt and unemployment rates of around 25%.Eskom keeps informing the public it needs a lot more money in order to keep the lights on, so this means definite future price hikes without the assurance that we are safe from the city in future being dumped in continuous darkness.

As part of the government's long-term strategy to deal with the ever-growing demand for power, South Africa is supposedly in talks with Russia over the procurement of nuclear reactors. It is reported this is a R500-billion deal. What is of course worrying, as with the power outages, is the lack of accountability.

The sun is up and I am preparing for a new day. I am not going to bitch, just get on with it. I am fully aware that we need to find solutions and put people in power that will make the difference. Right now I don't have the answers but I know that together we can make that change happen.