Lindiwe Zulu was load shed during her live interview on SABC. Picture: Instagram, Screengrab, @Unathi
Eish! Even being a minister in the country’s Cabinet doesn’t mean you’re not prone to load shedding.
The country has endured daily load shedding for nearly two weeks. Eskom says the rolling blackouts should end on Sunday evening, but this could change due to the instability of the grid.
Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu’s reaction to load shedding during a recent interview with SABC journalist Vuyo Mvoko went viral this week. Zulu was discussing her department’s rollout of social relief grants during the pandemic, particularly the R350 grant for the unemployed.
As Zulu was speaking, the power went off and she exclaimed “oh no..”, much to the amusement of South Africans on social media. Mvoko was taken aback and hoped it wasn’t the case, saying: “We hope it’s got nothing to do with load shedding.”
Zulu went back online and apologised: “Sorry that was load shedding.”
Twitter users couldn’t help but be creative with the video, using the viral TikTok song Oh no no no no by Capone.
During their discussion, Mvoko asked the minister how they would rate themselves in performance, from one to five. Zulu answered: “I would give ourselves four. I will tell you why I rate us at four because we are dealing with something we had only two weeks to implement.”
She says when President Cyril Ramapahosa announced the R350 Special Relief of Distress (SRD) the department did not have a system in place to implement it.
ALSO READ: Sassa social grant payment dates confirmed for June 2021
The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) announced the SRD Covid-19 grants were paid for the last time at the end of April, amid much uproar.
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