There were probably many, many more neighbourhoods around South Africa that also had power failures at the same time too. So there’s no conspiracy theory loitering around here.
Our power went of at 09:45 on Monday morning. No warning, no explanation and, of course, no communication. When I phoned the Tshwane call centre, they didn’t even know that the electricity wasn’t on.
So I reported the fault, and so did several other residents in the complex in which we live. Ten minutes later, I called the call centre again. They still claimed they had no record of a fault in Lynnwood Glen. In fact, the call centre telephonist said that there were no reports of electricity faults in any part of Lynnwood.
So I reported it again. Then, ten minutes later, I phoned again and got the same answers. So I asked to speak to the supervisor and, after much argy-bargy, finally got through to her. I told her that the electricity supply to the neighbourhood had been cut and asked her to please get somebody to attend to the fault.
By now it was getting close to 11:00 on Monday morning.
Well, guess what?
We got our electricity back on Tuesday evening just after 16:00 after 33 hours of misery.
It was then that I realised just how dependent South Africans are on having a reliable source of power for our homes. I’m not saying, for one second, that we couldn’t make a plan to exist without electricity, but what is patently clear to me is that the whole suburban infrastructure depends on it.
Like any good Boy Scout, I have been camping and have made fires from wood collected in the veld, lived by candlelight and paraffin lamps and even read my books using an oil lamp.
But nowadays we are just ill-equipped when it comes to power failures and I think that we had better adjust our lives and start equipping ourselves as campers because I have no doubt that our electricity supplies will be disrupted more and more frequently in the years ahead.
Because I have a gas braai, we were able to heat some water in one of the cast iron pots I use and that meant we could wash ourselves, make some tea in the morning and even have a warm meal on Monday night.
Predictably because there was no power, the batteries that are there for the electric gate and the electric fence gradually ran down. So the entire complex was at risk and with no lights anywhere the risks were real.
Fortunately we do live in a gated community, which does help I suppose and next door to us is another complex and it had its lights blazing away so that might have been mild deterrent.
It did bring into sharp focus, though, just how reliant we are on electricity in our homes: for computers, televisions sets, stoves, kettles, other appliances and, most importantly our geysers.
So when Eskom starts warning us about power outages and possible load shedding we all need to take it seriously and start saving power. And I don’t mean just switching off your geyser for a couple of hours each day or leaving the underfloor heating off for the winter either.
I’m not about to dish out 101 tips for energy saving because there are more than enough sites on the Internet with this information. Instead, I suggest that we, as property owners, tenants, ratepayers and consumers need to start taking some action against our very own councils and local authorities.
You see the important point about electricity consumption is that residential electricity consumers gobble just over 30% of Eskom’s total generating capacity. Industrial firms and the mining companies consume the balance.
Moreover, electricity theft and illegal connections – euphemistically referred to as non-technical losses by Eskom – actually consume about 3% of the electricity produced during a year.
And it seems to me that Eskom and the local councils themselves are condoning these thefts because nothing is being done to stop them.
Take the horrific case of the school children in Durban who go to the Mayville Primary School.
So far eight youngsters from that school have died after being electrocuted because of illegal connections that run from the school’s mains to the nearby squatter camp where residents have rigged up illegal cables to the school’s legitimate electricity supply.
Bandits from the informal settlement threatened to shoot a teacher who switched off the mains power at the school one day.
It’s only after the death of another child attending the Mayville Primary School that the eThekwini Municipality decided to take action. They have promised to send security guards to the school and, in this way, hope to protect the teachers and the children and stop bandits from running an illegal electricity grid in the squatter camp.
I’m not sure how much that will help. A security guard against a group of armed bandits hell-bent on getting electricity into their shacks? I wouldn’t want to be that security guard.
However, the council needs to do considerably more than just giving the school a guard. What needs to happen is:
- The police need to move into the settlement (with the necessary technicians) and arrest every one of the shack dwellers that is connected to the illegal electricity grid;
- The individuals must be charged not only for the theft of electricity but with culpable homicide because it was their actions that directly caused the deaths of eight Mayville Primary School children over the past five years. No person in their right mind can claim that they were not aware of the risks posed by these illegal electricity connections.
Electricity thefts cost Eskom R1bn in the 2008/09 financial year alone and the eThekwini council admits that its own losses amount to about R100m annually.
Electricity theft throughout South Africa is widespread and appears to be condoned. In Soweto, for instance, there is the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee that openly specialises in illegally reconnecting electricity supplies to householders and shop-owners.
What are the councils in South Africa doing about? The simple answer is not a lot. What are police doing? Not a lot. And Eskom? Nothing at all it seems.
Eskom’s losing R1bn a year and doing little or nothing to quell those losses. It’s mind-bogglingly stupid. And little children are dying as a result.
What’s more, the metropolitan police – in all the country’s councils – appear to be doing nothing to prevent the illegal connections or the accidental deaths either.
They just avert their eyes and set up yet another speed trap somewhere.
*Hartdegen writes a regular column for Property24.com. The content of his columns constitutes his personal opinion and doesn’t pretend to be facts or advice. Contact him at paddy@neomail.co.za.
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