A VIEW OF THE WEEK: Load shedding or not, what’s the difference?

The long-shared claim that you can get anywhere in Joburg within 40 minutes is now a myth as much as the Easter Bunny, Father Christmas, and an honest politician — and we can’t even blame it on load shedding anymore.

Eskom has been fiddling with our lights and feelings lately. After more than 10 months of uninterrupted electricity supply, its latest power trip ended on Wednesday after five days.

The frustration that comes with the utility switching on and off load shedding is matched only by the confusion at its strange habit of starting off its message about outages by reminding us of its former glories — in a way that would make any Man United fan proud.

Telling us how long it did its job does not make us more understanding when it doesn’t. While we are looking for lights, it is looking for a pat on the back.

This attention-seeking behaviour, or main character syndrome, may be because it is now competing for our anger with crime, potholes, dry taps, and more unplanned outages than before.

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Hello darkness, my friend

A study released by StatsSA this week found that 6% of children live in homes that are not connected to a main electricity supply. While this number may appear low, it should be far less. The other 94% are not immune to darkness though, with dozens of unplanned outages reported every day in Johannesburg alone.

As municipalities battle failing infrastructure and vandalism, it has become impossible to tell if the traffic lights on the way home are off because Eskom has decided to surprise us with load shedding, a cable has been stolen, or something has “tripped” at a nearby substation.

In short, the delays and disappointments that so often plagued us with load shedding now haunt us every day and have become a familiar friend.

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Load shedding blues

For many, these outages deal a devastating blow to their mental health. Some say the outages leave them feeling powerless and like they cannot provide for their families, while others rightly point out that humans were never meant to live in total darkness.

A 2023 South African Depression and Anxiety Group (Sadag) survey found that four in 10 people felt depressed because of power cuts, and six in 10 said that rolling blackouts triggered their anxiety. There were also fears of increased crime and job losses because businesses could not run properly.

Worryingly, the feelings do not go away when Eskom announces an end to load shedding. The highest levels of distress recorded were when power was not returned on the promised time (91%) or when there was an unscheduled power cut (90%).

The uncertainty of if and when we will have power, and now water, has left us all nervous wrecks, often hopeless, more angry, and less patient.

The solutions are slim for those unable to “go off the grid” and in the hands of those who don’t share their struggles.

For these politicians and officials, electricity and water struggles are a myth only made real when the outrage is impossible to ignore and threatens their positions. For the rest of us, the outages can threaten our very lives.

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