Scheduled 'load shedding' and the cost to the economy... Whatls the answer? Here's one!
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at 3:12PM As I write this post I am sitting in a traffic jam on William Nicol drive in Bryanston. I have been in the same spot for almost an hour... I have no other choice but to endure it because I am on my way to a meeting with one of our Bishops at OR Tambo international airport.
The cause of this terrible traffic is not an accident... No, it is the scheduled 'load shedding' by ESKOM our nations electricity bungler... I cannot in all honesty call them a 'provider' since they do it so seldomly these days!
As I sit her wasting time that I don't have, watching all the other people stuck in the traffic with me, I wonder, how much is this scheduled load shedding costing our country in lost revenues and productivity? Perhaps there is a subtle plan to make the WHOLE nation as inefficient as the Department of Home Affairs so that they won't look so bad? Oooohhh... That's a cheap shot.
Seriously though, what could the solution be? Well, the one group of persons who seem to be making a roaring trade are those guys who sell Cokes and sunglasses on the side of the road! Perhaps that's what we should do? Shut down all formal trade and all just sell our stuff from the backs of our cars when the traffic stands still?
Last night I spent my birthday by romantic candle light, my daughter her homework by less than romantic candle light, and we ended up boiling water for my son on a small gas stove.
My ban account seems a little overloaded by the many demands upon its resources. I think this month I may do a little load shedding myself and withhold payment to ESKOM. What do you think?
/end rant! Sorry!
Reader Comments (3)
OOh - me thinks we should not pay our accounts to Eskom for one month - en-Block. However it somehow will not help the problem. In Germany with less sunlight they use solar power and are busy setting up a system where homeowners feed excess back into the system. One woerstation costs R300 BILLION to build and will take 6 year to commission. Me thinks they should spend it all on solar power.
PS. A belated Happy and Blessed Birthday old boy.
Umm ............. why are you in a traffic jam when you own a VESPA!!! ;)
I think you guys are having a rougher time up there than we are. Have you tried to access the Eskom web page to (a) locate then (b) understand and (c) work out when your l/s will be? Now THAT"S a fun thing to do in a traffic jam heehee!
Hope your meeting goes well!Love & blessings Janet
Not to mention that they want to build a ruddy great aluminium smelter at East London so that poor residents of Soweto can subsidise profits for Canadian fat cats, whose hydroelectricity is "too expensive".
And you can bet that that is one load that they will not shed!