WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE TURN THE POWER ON SO THE GOVERNMENT CAN SEE THE LIGHT

WHAT happened to our electricity? It seems like as recently as three years ago we had real electricity which we could afford. The electricity in our household of two and a small dog is R1 000 a month, and we run around switching off things. This is thanks to all sorts of levies and charges arbitrarily added by the City of Joburg which has set itself up as a middle man between us and Eskom. That was the city’s response to its need for money to squander, to be misappropriated and to deliver a modicum of services. (What does the gibberish “demand side levy” mean?) And those suits from Eskom who appear on TV to threaten us with “load shedding” (gibberish, meaning power cuts) are getting really annoyed with us.

The power which flows into our house is not the same. The solitary light we switch on has a grotty red glow as if it is going to snuff it any second. Perhaps there is a missing copper cable somewhere? Are those things in the sockets that look like something gone wrong actually light bulbs? They do not give much light and certainly you cannot darn a sock by them. And why do they wait until you think there is a power failure before they apologetically come on?

The racing cars on the Playstation my son left behind go at a speed which even the honourable Sibusiso Ndebele will find a trifle sluggish and it is too easy to win races against them. (I use the Playstation to keep up my driving skills as I cannot afford the petrol and bribes to drive my car.)

In the evening, when most people are in bed, a scary notice, like a pothole sign from hell, covering half the screen, comes up on the TV warning us that consumption levels are dangerously high, and we switch off the tiny set which we watch without sound over books because it is so much better that way.

The meter reader comes around regularly (someone, give me a hallelujah!) and writes down the reading for me, but just as regularly my statement shows an estimated amount which is way too high. You cannot complain, because the telephone and e-mails are just not answered.

Why is it that hardly ever is a criminal punished and never a deserving backside kicked in our country? Are we a nation of docile cowards, who accept being mugged by the same guy every day? Is the Rainbow Nation in fact yellow?

CJ Nortje Randburg