Blackouts are as clear as mud

You could be forgiven for thinking we were all characters in a movie or novel about some dreadful dystopian future. While Gauteng has been battling heavy rains reminiscent of Waterworld, the movie starring Kevin Costner, with flooding in parts of Centurion, Pretoria and Mamelodi, the Eastern Cape has been dealing with scorching temperatures and a water crisis in towns such as Graaff-Reinet.

Add Eskom’s rolling blackouts — referred to so innocuously as “load-shedding” in government parlance — and you have all the ingredients for a Stephen King novel such as The Stand, in which society, always fragile, collapses. One thing you are certain of: whether you feel as if you are being broiled in the Eastern Cape or washed away in Gauteng, you will be doing it in the dark.

What triggered the power cuts, which began on December 5, is still not clear.

The outages reached their highest level yet on Monday night when horrified citizens heard just after 6pm that the country had entered uncharted territory with an escalation to stage 6 loadshedding, which entails the removal of 6,000MW. To get a sense of the scale, a move to stage 8 would entail the loss of half a day’s amount of electricity.

Last week, wet coal was blamed, though Eskom cited technical faults at Medupi for the ultimately short-lived escalation to stage 6. Inexplicably, just a few hours later load-shedding was de-escalated to stage 4. You can’t help but wonder if someone, somewhere and very high up, had a few choice words — possibly loaded with expletives — telling concerned parties to move heaven and earth to get us back into familiar territory. Eskom credits its technicians who “worked around the clock” to ensure coal-handling activities in Medupi resumed.

By Tuesday morning, everything was still as clear as mud. Reports from Eskom overnight said that flooding at Kriel mine in Mpumalanga had affected coal handling.

However, Seriti Resources, which owns Kriel, said there was no supply problem. Charmane Russell, a spokesperson for the company, said the mine has “built up a stockpile to ensure ongoing supply and that stockpile is currently at a level sufficient for 41 days”. According to Russell, the Kriel power station was running at, or close to, capacity all day on Monday.

South Africans are a hardy bunch and seem to be taking it in their stride. Memes were circulating on social media making light of the crisis.

However, it is actually a very sad state of affairs. The truth is, these power cuts could not have come at a worse time for SA, with the likelihood of the country slipping into its second recession in less than two years becoming far stronger.

SA’s mining sector, which has already shed thousands of jobs in a sputtering economy, was forced to shut underground operations and processing plants. Unless there is an intervention at Eskom that works, jobs will be on the line again.

Perhaps the worst thing about the timing of this latest Eskom crisis is that we have the proverbial sword of Damocles hanging over our heads as we wait for Moody’s Investors Service to decide whether to finally downgrade SA.

The country has been given a three-month reprieve by the ratings agency, which is waiting to see what reforms the government actually implements.

But you can do precious little if you can’t keep the lights on for 18 hours a day.

We are still in the dark about the price we will have to pay for this latest bout of load-shedding, or when it will end.

New Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter has the toughest job in SA. He will have to find a way to avert a complete meltdown at Eskom and help the country finally to live up to its potential.

He should make improving communication and playing straight with the public his first act.

THE TRUTH IS, THESE POWER CUTS COULD NOT HAVE COME AT A WORSE TIME FOR SA