https://upbeatradio.net/v3/News.Article?article=6929
Announced at 8 a.m. on August 9. “Loadshedding is suspended until midnight.” 16 hours of electricity staying on. Cringe when they switch off the power again. No expert predicts precisely when lights go back on. Hope within two hours, while horror thrillers happen.
To a country notorious for jingoistic murders, gender-based violence and load-shedding. The announced availability of power during South Africa’s Public Holiday Woman's Day. Anniversary of the “great women's march.” Remembering 9 August 1956, almost 20,000 women marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest against apartheid government laws.
Eskom, established in 1923, is a company in charge of electricity. The workload was light during apartheid, they only had to cater to a white minority. Problems started when they had to provide electricity to +60 million people.
2009 the first time load-shedding was declared. Since then, a daily probability timetable scheduling random electricity cuts nationwide. How many times, how long, between stages one and eight? Stages allow power stations to share electricity available across the country.
Countless cases of theft, sabotage, and corruption, beneficiaries and competitors plaguing load-shedding. Presidentially declared national crisis responsible for the economy collapsing. Stages worsened by disputes in fossil fuel and green energy policies. mixed with local and international politics. Some court cases won, but few arrests.
Marches protest how load-shedding is a crime - no solidarity like women in 1956. I write this expecting my electricity cut at midnight when Eskom ends the suspension. No Woman’s Day event to celebrate feminism safe yet. I doubt we give Load-shedding a public holiday in the future.