Load-shedding spooks Harvey
It is one thing when the problems a country faces affects only those living within its border. It is a completely different thing when those problems start affecting people that do not live in the country.
That is the case with load-shedding, a phenomenon so unique to South Africans — and most southern African countries — that we often have to explain what it actually is to people in 194 countries.
It turns out that American media personality and Family Feud presenter Steve Harvey (pictured) just can not wrap his head around load shedding.
The star recently expressed his dismay about how Eskom just can not keep the lights on.
During an interview with journalist Devi Govender, Harvey revealed that he would love to buy a house in Mzansi after the success of his popular quiz show in the country. However, he said the constant load-shedding might be the reason why he does not.
“Dear Eskom, I would love to purchase a house here, but I would like to be able to walk in and have the lights on,” he said.
“Why, on a continent with the most natural resources than any other continent in the world, can’t we have the lights on all the time? They are on in Ghana, Nigeria and Botswana. They also have the lights on in Rwanda, but we can’t have that in South Africa? I’m very disappointed in that,” he said.
Eskom is implementing load shedding this week, with stage 1 from 5pm to 10pm on Tuesday and downgraded from stage 2 after generation capacity improved.
“Over the past 24 hours, Eskom teams have returned seven generation units to service. This has helped ease the supply constraints and enabled Eskom to suspend load shedding at this point. However, this is currently insufficient to fully supply the evening peak,” the embattled power utility said in a statement.
This is not the first time Harvey has expressed shock about load-shedding. In an episode of Family Feud last year, he said the concept of loadshedding was “stupid”.
“That’s stupid. Who thought of that?” he asked. “There is a lot of electricity. Rich people got together and got you thinking there isn’t enough, but they are still charging you for it.” — iol.