BBM blackout hoax dismissed
A BBM message claiming that Eskom warned government during a special meeting of a looming two-week blackout has raised national panic.
THE recent spate of daily load shedding as well as the numerous media reports regarding the critical state of Eskom’s power stations have raised concern over a potential blackout of the nation’s power grid.
In fact, a hoax BBM statement, which has been circulating on social media, claimed Eskom had notified the government ‘in a special meeting’ that the country’s main grid was in danger of crashing at any moment – leaving the entire nation without power for more than two weeks.
The statement painted a bleak picture, similar to a scene one would expect from a Hollywood apocalypse movie. It encouraged the public to stock up on food, water, gas, and cash as 99 per cent of all businesses would be closed.
Furthermore, the public was urged to beef up their home security by reinforcing windows, doors, burglar guards, property gates and fences, as ‘lawlessness’ reigned when the grid crashed in California in 2011.
However, the acting director-general of the Department of Communication, Donald Liphoko, has dismissed the hoax message, saying, “South Africans are assured that the country’s energy challenges are receiving priority at the highest level to resolve the situation. The message regarding Eskom is not true and is meant to create unnecessary panic.”
He added that load shedding was a controlled and planned method implemented to protect the nation’s power system from a total blackout.
“Government is confident that the measures it is introducing will ensure that the country does not reach a point of a complete blackout, ” he said.
Liphoko urged the public to ignore the hoax message and to refrain from spreading such rumours.
