Category: this is south africa

Alleged cable thieves arrested.

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ISTOTBIDMPD

We have enough problems with our electricity supply (I’m not even going to link to it any more) (ok, one last time: here you go) without bits of the actual power system being stolen. And yet cable theft is a huge problem here, especially with prices for metal being so high.

So it was good to see that a breakthrough was made in Nelspruit recently:

And not just a bit of scrap metal. A lot of scrap metal:

They allegedly found Eskom pylons weighing 740 kilograms, Eskom cables 350 meters long and a burned copper 98,5 kilograms valued to over R200 000. 

Here’s the shot of Beatrice which was shared.

Now, I’m no expert on cable theft, but I would have thought that disconnecting the cables at the other end before handling them would have been the way to go, Beatrice.

Ohm my lord: she looks shocked, doesn’t she? Watt was she thinking? I’m glad to see that she’s been charged. I wonder if she offered any resistance? Apparently she only got bailed at 10pm last night so when she got home, her husband asked “Wire you insulate?”.
Anyway, now she’s well and truly grounded.

It’s ok. I’m stopping now.
Sorry.

I was just trying to keep you all up to date with current events.

Shod

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More fun and games with the electricity. Is it worse to have it go off right on the hour when it is supposed to, or is it worse for it to tempt and tantalise your hopes and press your optimism button (not a euphemism) for an additional 15 minutes (or actually 26 minutes this afternoon) before bringing you back down to earth with a bump as the power disappears?

My jury is out. I dislike both scenarios, but I would almost have been more annoyed if it hadn’t been cut this afternoon, given that I was – for once – fully prepared with flask and other things.

But it is all very tiresome.

We went to bed in pitch darkness last night and woke up the same this morning. And we’ll do it again tonight and tomorrow as well.

However, there may be some light (pun intended?) at the end of the tunnel, as the illegally striking workers do seem to have begun to return to work now. Not that things were brilliant before they walked out, but at least there’s someone there in the power stations to blame the faulty equipment now.

I’m on taxi duty again this evening, but at least we’re going somewhere with generators, music and security tonight, instead of the scary place from earlier in the week.

Little wins. Always worth celebrating.

Not tonight

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I was going to drop a quick blog post in while I was watching the Boy Wonder at training this evening, but loadshedding (see 6000 miles… passim) has necessitated a change in venue.

Of course it has.

So why no blog post opportunity from this new location? Well, because it lies right within the fetid industrial heart of Cape Town’s fetid industrial heartland, and there is quite literally no way that I am taking my laptop along for the ride this evening, given that we will likely have to park quite a distance from the actual training spot. Add in a bit of late evening loadshedding, darkened streets, and the proximity of one of the city’s dodgiest informal settlements, and I think we’ll just be content with getting home safely, thank you very much.

We were there during daylight hours recently and it was still pretty scary.

So, you might ask, why are we going along to this veritable hellhole?

Well, it’s because there’s a Big Thing coming up very soon that my son is involved in, and training for it is very important. More on that to come nearer the time, but suffice to say that we’re all rather excited.

Anyway, with that blogging opportunity gone, I’ve had to use some valuable afternoon time to get this missive out, and so I must get back to the real work I was supposed to be doing.

More tomorrow (assuming we survive unscathed). (Which we will.)

Called it (volume 8,459,216)

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Not claiming any points for this: one just gets used to seeing what’s going to happen long before it actually happens. Low hanging fruit.

Remember I ended last night’s blog post with this:

Well, this lunchtime, there was this:

Who could have guessed?

[entire country raises hands]

The “unlawful strike” was supposed to have ended, and unions had/were supposed to have told their members to get back to work:

Sadly, it seems that this just hasn’t happened. But who’d begrudge them another day or two off?

[entire country raises hands again]

Obviously, everyone is blaming everyone else, but to reject an 7% pay offer that hasn’t even been made yet seems pretty brave, defiant, and – most of all – really fucking annoying. And once again, it’s the South African public that are bearing the brunt of it all. And it’s difficult to put into words how hated those “workers” are right now.

So that’s another 8 hours of power cuts today.
No braai tonight. I’m getting dinner on now and warming it by gas a bit later.

Happy Alternative

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There might be Stage 6 loadshedding tonight, and it might coincide with our dinner time, but on the plus side, it’s been a cracker of a day in Cape Town and we are lucky enough to have an alternative to the electric oven, and plenty of wood to power it with.

And so, making the best out of a frankly somewhat scary situation, we’re going to lob some steaks, some pork kebabs and some chicken (for the vegetarians) on the braai this evening. There will also be a salad and some garlic…? bread…?. It could actually be a very pleasant evening.

We’ve been promised “just” Stage 4 tomorrow (the Stockholm Syndrome is kicking in just as they had hoped), and so it does seem at the moment as if South Africa has survived another near miss.

But you never say never in this place.