522 113 hours without electricity!

Trying to get work done at the Wimpy in Cresta

The joys of living in ANC-run Joburg! Extended outrages in between load shedding. Last year in September we had a 66 hour power outrage. During CIDC2023 in September, I had to use a studio flat with solar power (normally R7,500 per month rental) to attend the conference because we were having load shedding several times a day. Fortunately for me, the flat was empty and the owners generously allowed me to use it for free, including the Wi-Fi. Wonderful neighbours.
As I write this, we have just finished an ordeal of 113 hours without power, despite there being no national load shedding at all! The power went off unexpectedly on Wednesday 18 September, around 14h50. I logged a ticket (reference no CPWEB4032200) along with the rest of the suburb, and we waited for news. A cable had shorted out and caught fire at the Windsor substation, so naturally City Power had to wait for Eskom. And that's where the lying, cover-ups, PR speak and obfuscation began. At 01h30 on Thursday  City Power closed the ticket. Very sneaky.
By the time I woke up in the morning (Thursday) it was too late to "escalate" the ticket, so I got a new reference number: CPWEB4032870. I spent several hours (and R150) at Bootleggers in Cresta, using their WiFi and recharging my phone and laptop. It turned out that they didn't have any decaf coffee, so I had to settle for some lemon iced tea and a delicious chocolate brownie. I could catch up on emails and get some work done until 6pm.
On Friday I decided to try the Wild Falcon Spur at Heathway (R300), in the hopes they would have decaf coffee. No such luck with the coffee, but the service was good, and the rooibos tea and hamburger was fine. My waiter had the politeness to leave me alone, and few interruptions.

The power came back at 2pm, and so I went back home to carry on catching up with work. All was fine until 20h10 when the power went off again! This time Eskom and City Power were determined to ruin our entire weekend. CPWEB4033907.
On Saturday I went to the gym for a shower and some sanity. Another neighbour offered anyone in the suburb the chance to use their solar power, so I made use of the opportunity for a few hours while my phone recharged and I could use my laptop. Excuses and various (inaccurate and misleading) ETR promises were made and broken by City Power, who naturally tried to shift the blame to Eskom. We listened to the Rugby World Cup semifinals by candlelight on the radio. Another win for the Bokke by a single point, and SA is in to the finals against the All Blacks.
On Sunday I decided to try to take the day off, and went to the gym again, to get rid of my frustration as much as getting some exercise. Eskom were still busy cutting trees (you can't make this stuff up) and then all of a sudden we were given a 17h00 ETR that came and went, and still no power. By this stage four City of Joburg Wards were being affected by the outrage(s). Later we heard that Eskom had restored power to Windsor substattion, just in time for City Power to switch on the Cresta substation and cause another trip. Then City Power needed to wait until Monday for a testing team to come and see what the problem was at Cresta.
On Monday City Power closed my ticket with "Repairs Completed" at 05h16, and I managed to "escalate" it at 07h19 when I woke up. After sleeping in late and making breakfast on a gas cooker, I decided to try out the decaf coffee at the Cresta Wimpy.

Finally! A decent decaf cappuccino, power, and Wi-Fi (but a bit slow). I could hardly believe my luck when I heard that the power had been restored at 1pm. Let's see how long it lasts.
In the meantime, I have learnt a few things about Eskom: they hadn't done maintenance on an "oil cable" for over a year. The contractors they used dug through a live cable in the dark because they didn't bring any lights with them. A real professional outfit! They only inspect their overhead power lines for trees that cause shorting when a short actually happens, and on the weekend, so they have to pay extra for the trees to be cut back. Eskom has no guards for their urban substations, and they usually take 8 hours to show up when called by City Power.
Things I have learnt about City Power: their infrastructure is crumbling at such a rate that they deal with an average of 4000 tickets per day. They do little or no maintenance, and if they can "back feed" a substation or area instead of fixing it, they will do that. They lurch from one fiasco to the next, and never return to do proper repairs. Likewise, they don't have enough cable testing teams, even though most of their problems involve faulty cables. In our suburb they don't lock the substations, so we provide locks for them. In the neighbouring suburb, they insist on using their own padlocks, but they don't always lock them. Go figure. They don't seem to have any lights for working at night, other than the torch on their cell phones.

The ANC has succeeded in damaging and sabotaging more infrastructure since 1994 than they managed in the decades of "armed struggle" before 1994. They are a disgrace and a national embarassment.

Both City Power and Eskom are "run" by ANC "cadre deployees", who are usually lazy, corrupt and clueless. Most ANC municipalities are bankrupt and dysfunctional, as are all State Owned Enterprises, of which Eskom, Transnet, PRASA and the SABC are prime examples.
The Joburg municipality is being systematically run into the ground by the ANC politicians and municipal employees for the last 3 decades, so none of this should come as a surprise, but still it is shocking to have experience it hitting you in the face for 5 days in a row. So I have decided to delay my rates payments by 5 days every month, in a quiet gesture of reciprocity.

Update Tuesday 24 October: Beeld newspaper published this article:

Update Monday 13 November: Yet another City Power blackout. Started at 13:10 on Monday. Still no power on Tuesday, so I enjoyed the Wi-Fi and coffee at Bootleggers in Cresta from 09:30 to 17:00. It finally came back after 30 hours, at 19:30.

Unplanned outrages in Aldara Park for 2023

excluding load shedding:

1. 12 Jan CPWEB3678171 1 hour
2. 13 Jan CPWEB3682778 7 hours
3. 23 Jan CPWEB3694706 3 hours
4. 27-28 Jan CPWEB3698875 12 hours

5. 04 Feb CPWEB3707256 11 hours
6. 12 Feb CPWEB3718828 2 hours

7. 03 Mar CPWEB3788482 2 hours

8. 05 Apr CPWEB3783338 1 hour
9. 08 Apr CPWEB3785526 2 hours
10. 26 Apr CP2989110 9 hours
11. 28 Apr CPWEB3810728 7 hours

12. 02 May CPWEB3813314 5 hours

13. 22 Jul CP3032305 8 hours

14. 01-02 Sep CPWEB3982795 9 hours
15. 03-04 Sep CPWEB3984580 12 hours
16. 11-12 Sep CPWEB3997968 26 hours
17. 29 Sep CPWEB4018162 13 hours

18. 18-23 Oct CPWEB4032200 CPWEB4032870 CPWEB4033907 113 hours (6 days)

6 Nov: City Power "successfully" takes over load shedding switching duties from Eskom.

19. 09 Nov CPWEB4057606 6 hours
20. 13-14 Nov CPWEB4057606 30 hours
21. 22 Nov CPWEB4076387 8 hours

23 Nov: City Power modifies "successful" load shedding schedule after massive outcry from residents.

22. 23 Nov CPWEB4078336 1 hour
23. 26 Nov CPWEB4081778 8 hours

24. 6-14 Dec CPWEB4097231 204 hours.
25. 18-19 Dec CPWEB4110976 22 hours.

Total 522 hours (21 days, 18 hours). Outrages on 44 days. That's an average of nearly 12 hours per outrage. So my 5 day delay in paying my rates has escalated to a month.

Editor's note: I have deliberately misspelt outage as outrage to make a point. Not that anyone at City Power or the City of Joburg will get it.
Update Friday 24 November: Eskom has declared Stage 6 load shedding for the weekend and City Power can't switch everyone on or off on time because they don't have enough qualified staff to flick the switches without electrocuting themselves. So last night (CPWEB4078336 - cancelled) we came on 50 minutes late, and on Tuesday (CPWEB4075389 - cancelled) it was 25 minutes late off, and 50 minutes late back on.
Update Sunday 26 November: The power "tripped" at 14h50 but since "load shedding" was supposed to be from 14h00 to 16h30 we only reported it at 16h45. It came back on after 8 hours at 22h40.
Update Wednesday 6 December: Power went off at 7am on Wednesday. CPWEB4097231, CPWEB4097063, CPWEB4095858, CPWEB4095833, CPWEB4095843, CPWEB4097214, CP3099926, CPWEB4100022, CPWEB4095809, CPWEB4101046. Power still not back after 8 days, and no sign of anything being done anytime soon.

On Thursday the "test team" disconnected one of the phases, and then left the substation unlocked. We haven't seen them since.

On Saturday afternoon there was some brief excitement when this truck arrived and then left a few minutes later.
On Saturday evening the "test team" arrived, and determined exactly the same as the Thursday test team: the cable is faulty.

They left the cable in this condition: one phase running hot to supply some of the houses, The rest are still without power, and the generator for Carvers Restaurant is still running after being shut down when the restaurant closed on Sunday at 5pm. Finally at 7pm power was temporarily restored to all but one home: CPWEB4101046 and the restaurant CP3191075. Now we wait for a new cable, and pray the faulty one doesn't burn out with too much power on the yellow phase.

On Tuesday a team arrived to start digging. A resident wrote: "They have no work permit. No excavation permit. No lock out permits. No diagram of how the wires are in the ground. ... Not sure what would happen if they hit a live wire." At some point the cable tripped, so Cheyne Road is without power again.

On Wednesday they struck a Vumatel cable, so the restaurant now has no power and no fibre connection. I noticed that they seem to have damaged one of the cables:

It's difficult to tell if the damage was done this time or when the cables were dug up in April 2020. I have sent the following email update to City Power:

From: Donn Edwards
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2023 11:19 AM
To: 'Tshililo Nefale'
Cc: 'Sipho Gamede' <sgamede@citypower.co.za>; 'Charles Tlouane' <ctlouane@citypower.co.za>; 'Tshifularo Mashava' <tsmashava@citypower.co.za>; 'Nikki van Dyk' ; 'Beverley Jacobs' ; 'Nthabiseng Moloi' <NthabisengMol@joburg.org.za>; 'Jacob Gaongallwe Mashilwane' <jmashilwane@citypower.co.za>; 'Isaac Mangena' <imangena@citypower.co.za>;
Subject: 7 days without power
Importance: High

Hi all
Ignoring these emails will not make them go away. Now we have people digging outside the substation (and disconnecting the fibre link to 45 Cheyne Road) but no one is willing to explain what is going on or providing an ETR.

Then there is this mess:
CP3099926
CP3191075 45 Cheyne Road
CPWEB4094835 46 Cheyne Cancelled/Closed/Completed
CPWEB4094843 44 Cheyne Canceled
CPWEB4095809 49 Cheyne
CPWEB4095821 46 Cheyne Cancelled/Closed/Completed
CPWEB4095833 44 Cheyne Canceled
CPWEB4095843
CPWEB4095858
CPWEB4097063 46 Cheyne Cancelled/Closed/Completed
CPWEB4097214 47 Cheyne
CPWEB4097231 44 Cheyne Job "Completed"
CPWEB4100022 46 Cheyne Cancelled/Closed/Completed
CPWEB4101046 40 Cheyne Road "Completed"
CPWEB4101064 44 Cheyne Job "Completed"
CPWEB4102459 46 Cheyne Cancelled/Closed/Completed
CPWEB4103655 44 Cheyne Closed
CPWEB4105636 44 Cheyne Allocated
CPWEB4105763 46 Cheyne

Some houses in Doring Close and Cheyne Road have been restored for a while, but a switch has tripped somewhere, and 40 and 45 Cheyne Road have been without power for 172 hours and counting.

Please can we have some feedback?
Thanks in advance
Donn Edwards
(City Power customer and ratepayer)

Update 14 December 2023: It turns out that two people did not ignore my emails. Tshilio Nefale (General Manager) and Beverley Jacobs (Ward 98 Councillor) showed up at the substation and started asking difficult questions. Suddenly things started getting fixed. What's more, Tshililo actually listened to her customers, particularly the ladies at 40 Cheyne Road, who have been having power cable issues for years. She got the testing team to show up for the third time, and diagnose the problems properly. By 7pm on Thursday everyone was reconnected, even if it was a "temporary" fix for some of the houses.

Eskom Sabotages the Economy

Eskom wants to increase tariffs by 45% per year for 3 years. That's on top of the "39%" increase earlier this year, plus load shedding expenses. Do they really think the economy will sustain this kind of nonsense? Clearly they have no idea.
I know of a ceramics factory in Joburg that will probably close at the end of the year because the existing electricity tariffs have made the business marginal, and further increases will force its closure. So that's 50 people out of work, and we aren't even counting the people who make a living selling the ceramics.
Last month our electricity bill more than doubled, and we are being overcharged by City Power. I guess further action will be required. They aren't going to like it.

Why not Join Greenpeace too?

On Saturday I joined Greenpeace Africa. Finally we have a credible organisation to push for green energy policies in South Africa. Now we just need a government that listens.

Nigeria's Power Problems

It's not only Eskom that doesn't do its job. I'm not an Afro-pessimist, but I do believe that people who steal the wealth of others are ruining their country. South Africa, Zimbabwe and Nigeria all suffer from this problem, in different ways.

Eskom Unplugged by Noseweek

I love reading Noseweek ("news you're not supposed to know") because they are one of the few publications in South Africa that keeps us honest.
I bought their May issue only last week, and now courtesy of their web site you can (for a limited time) read their fascinating account of how Eskom has mismanaged themselves and put the entire economy at risk. Here is the summarised version of how to run a mega-corporation into the ground in seven easy steps:
Step 1: Look after number one
This involves lucrative "special contracts" with key employees and high flyers.
Step 2: Put your hand in the cookie jar
Sell off assets but keep the best ones for select employees who can then make a fortune by selling them at a profit later
Step 3: Take in a lodger
Rent space to SARS at a special low rate for 15 years, so you end up having to build extra space for your own needs and spend R50 million doing so.
Step 4: Be too clever to take advice
Set up a special relationship with the Reserve Bank and then ignore it.
Step 5: Do some truly weird stuff
Pay for a lavish junket to Iraq in an attempt to get business from Saddam Hussein.
Step 6: When the shit hits the fan, lie!
When power blackouts occur, give out little or no real information on how bad the grid is maintained and run. If in doubt, give out the wrong information.
Step 7: Give jobs to the boys
Give out contracts to ANC front companies so the party can make a cool R3billion profit from the deal. Never mind the contracts are late and way behind schedule, or that the pricing and product was originally not good enough.
You can subscribe to Noseweek online at www.noseweek.co.za

Stress Shedding: an experiment

Yesterday I got a call from my brother, who lives in Walmer, Port Elizabeth. He explained that their local substation had exploded and his home had been without power for 5 days already, with no sign of a replacement transformer anytime soon. Umkhonto We Sizwe would have been proud.
He had bought a small generator to run the fridge and the washing machine, and a gas cooker, but they had no hot water because the geyser used more power than the generator could provide. His 4 children were having baths at friends houses, and they are doing their best. They are taking next week off to get away from the chaos and try to relax for a few days at friends in Plett.
Meanwhile, our flat has been experiencing the "joys" of load shedding, with the power being off for 4 hours last night, from 6pm to 10pm. It will be off again on Saturday. The only reason they need to cut power on Saturday evenings is to keep their timetables "fair", although I think the businesses in Cresta Shopping Centre think otherwise.
I decided to try staying at home and relaxing for 4 hours. It was quite peaceful having a long soaking bath by candlelight, but I had to keep my ears under water to block out the sound of a petrol generator a few houses down the road.
Then I made tea from the thermos flask and settled down in bed under the blankets with "The Bourne Ultimatum" audio book on my iPod. It turned out to be quite restful, and I feel far more relaxed today. Perhaps I have found the silver lining to the cloud of Eskom incompetence.

Update: Kempton Park has also experienced a major substation meltdown, and some areas will be without power for at least 5 days. Last year the Atlasville, Bedfordview, Centurion, Plumstead and Skinner substations failed, according to the SABC news site.

City Power Adverts Give Weird Advice

Last Sunday we were given the "good news" in the form of an advert listing the "Pre-Emptive Load Shedding Schedule". Each suburb in Joburg is cut off for 12 hours per fortnight, a cut-off of 3.5% across the board, even though a 10% saving is required.
To add insult to injury, they publish "Energy Saving Tips" that don't make sense.

"2. Switch off geysers during the off peak period (after the morning bath and after the evening bath)."

Are they serious? Like the Minister of Energy, they want geysers to be run only during peak periods, where the load will further aggravate Eskom's already overstrained generators. Eish!
I called the "Public Relations" department of City Power, on 011-490-7000. The two people who put the advert together were either off sick or on leave. Hopefully they can explain the wording of the advert next week.

Powerlessness to the People

We switched our geyser off from 8am to 10pm every day. Why should we bother if we are "rewarded" with 4 hour power cuts?

Eskom and Joburg City Power struck a blow for economic progress in our suburb this evening with the first of many promised blackouts from 6pm to 10pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Just think of that: no possibility of cooked meals for 4 nights a week. This is not good.
On top of that our idiot President muses in public about how consumers haven't cut their electricity consumption by the required 10%. We are encouraged to get energy-saving light bulbs at R20 a bulb, but then they announce that these will be given out for free, so of course how many people are going to rush out and buy them in that case?
We are encouraged to save power during peak periods (like 6pm to 10pm) and our reward for doing this is that for 4 nights a week the power will be cut off anyway. Thanks, Eskom, but I'm #@cked if I'm switching off the geyser voluntarily of that's how you repay me!
Our darling bright spark minister says we should switch out our lights early, but does nothing to get the government offices to do so. She relies on the media to do it, even when she insults the intelligence of the general public. And Smart-Alec Erwin lies to everyone by saying that economic development will not be affected by Eskom. What an idiot!
Eskom wants us to save 10% power, so it puts up the costs by 14%, just to make sure, and requests a 60% price hike! It wants us to install solar-powered geysers, but adds in so much paperwork that it raises the cost of the equipment. And you expect these people to run a country!

Cabinet's Newest Bright Spark and Her "Ten Point Plan"

Parliament had a special Joint Sitting on Wed 30th January to discuss the energy crisis, after 3 weeks of nationwide power blackouts. I have never been so insulted by a parliamentary speech. It was made by Buyelwa Sonjica, the Minister of Minerals and Energy. She clearly has no idea what she is doing, and not only is Eskom causing mayhem and destruction in the economy (the "Energy" part), but the mining industry has already lost millions and essentially halted production for a week so far (the "Minerals" part). In spit of the fact that both Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki were absent, a special joint sitting of parliament is called to discuss this "National Emergency". As the Minister in charge of this fiasco she gets up and addresses the nation as follows:

"Hon members, I want to conclude by introducing these tips – a 10-point plan that will go towards changing our behaviour in the consumption of electricity. What I am going to read out are things we can do when we go out of here:

• Switch off the geyser between 11h00 and 18h00 and between 21h00 and 05h00.
• All appliances must be switched off at the wall, and not the remote control. We can save about 40 megawatts there.
• Switch off all lights in the home when not in use and go to sleep early so that you can grow and be cleverer.
• Boil only as much water in a kettle as is needed. Don’t fill up the kettle when you need only two cups.
• Use the microwave oven rather than the stove. Use any other alternative energy source for heating and cooking rather than electricity. We are looking at people using gas, wood and so on.
  
• Take a shower and not a shallow bath.
  
• Switch off the lights just like Teddy Pendergrass’ “Turn off the lights”, especially in offices and government offices. They are the culprits. It is mandatory for government buildings except for security lights, and we want them to switch off between 22h00 and 06h00.
• While working in your office, use daylight instead of electric light as far as possible; and
  
• Please open the window rather than using the air conditioner.

This is the 10-Point Plan – easy to implement. As long as people do not whinge and whine, this can be achieved. We are calling on all of those positive and progressive South Africans to support us. It can be done and we will do it.

Does this minister have any idea what she is saying? This must be the first 10 point plan in history with only 9 points! I must run the geyser during peak hours only (see red area in graph below) ?! I must go to sleep early to get cleverer, but wake up at 5am to switch on the geyser? I must boil the kettle but cook with wood or gas ?!
Let me see ... If I wake up at 5am and then stay at home until 11am to switch off the geyser, perhaps the rush hour will be over and I won't need to use traffic lights to get to the office. I can then work a full day from noon until 5, and rush home in time to overload the grid by switching on the geyser at 6. I can then light a fire in my flat and have a romantic dinner in the dark and go to bed at 9pm, after switching off the geyser. The mind boggles.
Why didn't she just stand up in parliament and say "Medem the sugar is finished"?
To put this in context, I repeat her speech in full. It doesn't read any better than the extract from Hansard. The Minister of Minerals and Energy opens the session as follows:

Madam Speaker, hon members, chairperson of the NCOP, Deputy Speaker, deputy national chairperson and hon members of the House, Happy New Year.
As I was sitting there having a moment of silence, my daily prayer went, “let there be no outages”.
Madam Speaker, let me start by congratulating the former chairperson of the portfolio committee, Mr Nathi Mthethwa, for his new position as the Chief Whip of the Majority Party in Parliament. [Applause.] We appreciate his leadership and guidance during his tenure as our chairperson. Indeed, I must say that we had an excellent comrade or mother-to-son relationship. I also welcome Mr Nqaba Ncobo as the new chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Minerals and Energy. [Applause.] I am looking forward to working with him.
Hon members, over the past two weeks, we have seen unprecedented levels of electricity supply disruptions in South Africa. The questions on the minds of most people is how long this problem is likely to persist and whether enough is being done to resolve it. In some quarters, the sentiment relates mainly to the need to identify the culprits and to castigate them – crucify, crucify, crucify!
At the onset, I must take the opportunity to apologise to all South Africans for the hardships and inconvenience caused by this unfortunate turn of events. I want to reiterate the apologies by our President and our Deputy President respectively in expressing sincere regret.
We would like to thank all South Africans for the overwhelming response to our calls to save electricity. Let me also acknowledge the leadership that the ANC has provided in helping us deal with this national emergency.
Madam Speaker, Chairperson of the NCOP, the main contributing factors to the challenge facing us today, amongst others, are the following: the unprecedented and unanticipated rate at which we are economically growing as a country; and to a certain extent, the expansion of electricity services to previously unserved areas. This we did in the context of addressing the situation that we find ourselves in, where the majority of our people in this country did not have a very basic service – electricity.
When we took over in 1994, growth had stagnated with over 3000 megawatts excess capacity of plant in mothballed state after they had been decommissioned. Our emphasis as the ANC, in line with our vision, was not only to use the excess supply for growth, but to also turn excess into access for those who needed this basic service.
A legitimate question that always arises is - it arises from all South Africans - why we did not foresee this problem. The major task of the ANC when it took power in 1994 was to revitalise the economy and extend services to the majority of our people. As the Department of Minerals and Energy responsible for the security of supply and energy, we anticipated this current situation. When we experienced an electricity demand growth of about 3,34% and 7,1% in 2002 and 2003 respectively, projections were revised. It was confirmed that new power generation would be required in 2007 and that this should be peaking plant. In an attempt to address this, we did the following: In 2003 in September, my department informed Cabinet that South Africa was running out of excess capacity faster that expected and that additional capacity would be required in 2007. The lead time for such projects is approximately 3 years and therefore a decision was required as soon as possible. Cabinet approval was subsequently acquired for proposals that were geared towards ensuring that South Africa had adequate electricity supply going forward. The key decisions made by Cabinet included the following:
Firstly, Eskom should be instructed to ensure security of supply up to 2007, including the building of new power stations if necessary in the short term. Secondly, 70% of new capacity required beyond 2008 would be commissioned by Eskom. For the remaining 30% of required capacity beyond 2008, a process to bring Independent Power producers - IPPs - into the system would be started in 2005. Lastly, should be instructed to aggressively pursue Demand Side Management strategies with clearly defined targets. What happened with the IPPs? There was no appetite from the private sector to invest in capacity generation.
In April 2004, Cabinet took a decision to procure a new peaking plant as the first IPP in South Africa involving Eskom as the soul buyer of the power. Cabinet had also approved that in line with this obligation to supply, Eskom should be instructed to enter into a Power Purchase Agreement or other appropriate agreements with the IPPs; and that the should be no acceptable bids in the IPP process, Eskom should be asked to build the required capacity.
Hon members, there might have been a delay. Government, on a number of occasions through various leaders in government - in the name of the President himself, the Deputy President, the Minister of Public Enterprises, the Minister of Minerals and Energy - has considered that there was a delay. We have even apologised to South Africans. We are responsible enough. We know that we are accountable to our citizens, and we have done so. There might have been a delay, as I have indicated, but there was definitely an attempt to look into the matter. [Interjections.] I have already alluded to the attempts that we made.
There are other factors, hon members. We are part of the global village. That is a fact. Whatever happens in the world will also affect South Africa. Some of the factors that have affected us include a high demand of energy globally. That is a reality. That is the reason why you see China experiencing the same problem in 13 of its provinces. This is because there is a high demand of energy globally – that is a fact. The growth of the economies of India and China has had an impact – that is a fact. [Interjections.] This is not unique to South Africa. This is happening elsewhere in the world. [Interjections.] We have seen a collapse of energy markets in Ontario. We have seen blackouts in the North Eastern United States and Europe. All of these are because we are part of the global village. Brazil has gone through the same experience. So, we had to look at all of these things in addressing this problem.
We have strengthened the White Paper and the national Integrated Energy Plan at policy level. We have also developed a national energy master plan which Cabinet approved in December last year. Another important policy tool that we put in place last year is the Energy Efficiency Strategy of South Africa that has since enabled the Department of Minerals and Energy to establish the energy efficiency agency that still needs to be beefed up in order to roll out the energy efficiency campaign.
Hon members, we are all aware that we have a national emergency which calls upon Mr Tony Leon here and everyone of us to contribute towards the management of the situation. We are calling for a partnership between the people of South Africa and government. We have had a series of meetings with stakeholders, including the hon the Leader of the Opposition who is very much supportive of this initiative that we have taken as government – a very positive contribution, unlike these hon members on this side. We have since put together a National Electricity Emergency Programme which speaks to the supply and Demand Side Management of the situation.
In our view, the Demand Side Management can be a quick win because it entails using energy efficiently, and this can be done now as we speak. One element of the National Electricity Emergency Programme is power rationing. We have already invoked this protocol, where we have called for a 10% reduction of electricity consumption from all sectors. We are looking at banning the manufacturing and usage of incandescent lights. This will give us about 800 megawatts. Of the 10 million homes that are electrified in South Africa, there are eight incandescent lights per household. So, we need to bring this down. We will be promoting that South Africans who can afford to install solar heaters be encouraged to do so. At least the money from your lectures, Mr Tony Leon, will help. You will be able to buy a solar heater. We are looking at smart metering, fuel switching, traffic lights and public lighting, which we will convert to solar power. All of these are work in progress – we are working on them.
The hospitality industry is called upon to retrofit and be energy efficient. We also call upon them to convert water-heating to solar power. We will embark on the education, public awareness programme, and we will have material in a month’s time. We will also be looking at regulations which were only enforced from Wednesday last week. South Africa’s electricity is known to be the cheapest in the world. We must all brace up for a hike which has been in the pipeline – nothing new is going to be introduced. What is in the pipeline will be introduced as a matter of urgency. [Interjections.] We are confident that we have the ability to turn the situation around. We reassure the South African community and the world at large that all our projects will be on pause, and the 2010 Fifa World Cup is not under threat. [Interjections.]
Hon members, I want to conclude by introducing these tips – a 10-point plan that will go towards changing our behaviour in the consumption of electricity. What I am going to read out are things we can do when we go out of here:
Switch off the geyser between eleven o’ clock and 18h00 and between nine o’ clock in the evening and five o’ clock in the morning. All appliances must be switched off ... [Interjections] ... at the wall, and not the remote control. We can save about 40 megawatts there. Switch off all lights in the home when not in use and go to sleep early so that you can grow ... [Laughter] ... and be cleverer. Boil only as much water in a kettle as is needed. Don’t fill up the kettle when you need only two cups.Use the microwave oven rather than the stove. Use any other alternative energy source for heating and cooking rather than electricity. We are looking at people using gas, wood and so on. [Interjections.]Take a shower and not a shallow bath. Switch off the lights just like Teddy Pendergrass’ “Turn off the lights”, especially in offices and government offices. They are the culprits. It is mandatory for government buildings except for security lights, and we want them to switch off between 22h00 and 06h00. While working in your office, use daylight instead of electric light as far as possible and please open the window rather than using the air conditioner.
This is the 10-Point Plan – easy to implement. As long as people do not whinge and whine, this can be achieved. We are calling on all of those positive and progressive South Africans to support us. It can be done and we will do it. Thank you very much.

If you can make sense of this contradictory bunch of excuses, lies, misinformation and spin, then be my guest.


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