Unscheduled power cuts affecting South Africans psychologically, survey reveals

Frustrations continue to mount among citizens, business owners and the health sector, as power outages continue to cripple the economy, with yet another hike in municipal electricity tariffs looming.

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa has asked stakeholders to comment on its proposed increase in electricity tariffs by an average 15.1% on 1 July, based on its controversial municipal guideline and benchmark methodology.

Impact of load shedding

A project for the South African Depression and Anxiety Group reported at least 1 836 respondents said the lack of consistency affected them psychologically in an online survey.

“For many respondents, the impact was not due to the power cuts themselves, but when power was not returned on a promised time or when there was an unscheduled cut,” said Dr Bronwyn Dworzanowski-Venter, senior research associate at the faculty of humanities at the University of Johannesburg, who led the project.

ALSO READ: Load shedding ‘one of the biggest stumbling blocks for economic growth in SA’

“When nine out of 10 people feel worried when there is a non-scheduled power cut, and a further 91% raise the concern that power may likely not be returned for a long time, there is an anxious sense that the power system is strained and difficult to repair, even outside of load shedding times.”

‘Don’t disrespect us’

Dorothy Lekalakala, a Doornfontein, Johannesburg, resident, said the lack of basic services didn’t warrant an increase: “They should be ashamed, because they can’t even turn it back on in time”.

“We’re being load shed more hours than anticipated. Sometimes you’d think they’ve even forgotten about us because it has no correspondence to their communicated schedule,” she said.

ALSO READ: Government says state of disaster ended after measures taken to lessen load shedding

“We’ve at least accepted the load shedding – but don’t disrespect us and take more hours. It has changed all our routines and it’s made us unstable and [is] financially draining.”

Higher stages of load shedding

Joburg City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said with the higher stages of load shedding, customers are in some cases shed for four hours, “which is due to the blocks system”.

“System control tries to restore on time but it does happen that we have supervisory control and data acquisition challenges and restorations are delayed because resources get dispatched to physically restore. In some cases we have overload trips due to inrush current.

“According to the Eskom-aligned schedule we use, we have realised that during the higher stages of load shedding – especially stage 6 where we are now – customers in certain blocks will be shed for four hours, instead of two,” Mangena said.

WATCH: The heavy cost of load shedding on farmers

“It also means that customers should brace to be load shed more than three or four times daily, due to the number of blocks we are adding per outage schedule.”

Dr Percy Mahlathi, deputy director-general for hospital services, has called for financial backing from National Treasury, saying the rising fuel costs to run generators is overburdening budgets, despite at least 76 of the 213 hospitals being exempted from load shedding last year.

Hospitals struggling

Health department spokesperson Foster Mohale said public hospitals were struggling and needed the most assistance, “because they serve almost 84% of the population”.

The Democratic Alliance said Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa doubled down on unreliable coal power stations by suggesting their lifespans must be extended and taxpayers must foot the bill.

ALSO READ: Government must ‘privatise Eskom or risk further ruining of SA’s economy’

“Now the chickens have come home to roost as the country is plunged into yet another bout of stage 6 load shedding with a possibility of further escalation,” Kevin Mileham, the party’s shadow minister of mineral resources and energy, said.

At this rate, he said, Ramokgopa and his ANC colleagues would never be able to meet SA’s energy demand, while the country continued to be in the dark with devastating economic consequences.

– reitumetsem@citizen.co.za