Load Shedding: South Africa’s Electricity Cutting System
Over in South Africa outside of the major stories of civil unrest, riots, corruption and growing poverty, there is something major affecting the life of every South African citizen. This week I took a moment to connect with my best friend of 10 years, Ryan Brits who sat down and explained to me the dreadful government practice of “Load Shedding.”
With his government being in its highest state of corruption in its history, he took a moment to share with me what load shedding is and the nightmare it has been for everyone living in the country.
“Load shedding is when the country cuts electricity for a certain number of hours, a certain numbers of times per day,” Ryan explained. “Our infrastructure is so big and our power stations can’t handle that, because they haven’t been upgraded . . . there’s not enough electricity for everyone.”
This is happening throughout South Africa, the city of Johannesburg describes the practice as the following: “When the demand for electricity exceeds the available supply, planned supply interruptions may have to be carried out. This is called load shedding.” The city also attempts to provide schedules for the controlled power blackouts, which are of course outdated and painstakingly uninformative.
In addition to the massive inconvenience the loss of electricity poses for citizens, being unable to cook food or keep it cool, use lighting in their homes, or charge devices, Ryan also told me about how they even lose the ability to simply make a phone call when the grid blacks out. “Our signal goes down as well, so we struggle to get phone calls.” The inability to make emergency phone calls in a developed nation poses not just an inconvenience but a threat to the health and well being of the individuals living within that area.
“It’s a thing called ‘load shedding’ and it sucks,” Ryan concluded his explanation.
It is scary to imagine that here in the U.S. there are multiple leaders pushing for “green” energy policies that would require the citizenry to rely on a power grid infrastructure we simply do not poses. California for example, just recently had a number of power grid blackouts, that many in the state claim to be due to “climate change.” Odd, because California is possibly one of the most “green” states in terms of the energy sources utilized, and I was under the assumption that all of those policies were in place to reverse the negative affects of climate change. Funny how that works.
My heart and prayers go out to my best friend and the people of South Africa that are constantly in a rotating state of darkness, not knowing if there will come a day where they will be completely off-grid because of the poor maintenance that is being provided by their government officials.
Even though our own nation seems to be in a downward spiral, it is always humbling to remember that there is always someone in the world who has it worse. That simple fact will make you grateful for what you have, and encouraged to fight to protect it.
Listen below to hear Ryan Brits complete, first-hand explanation:
