In the midst of the national chaos which is load-shedding, it’s important to take to heart some of its micro consequences.
Take, for example, the elderly widow hanging on for dear life to her small corner shop business.
The power goes off for the second or third time in two days – without a generator of her own or other costly back-up gadgetry, her refrigerated goods are compromised, dim paraffin lamps replace overhead lighting, her safety gate remains locked and even if they are able to, shoppers are reluctant to enter the semi-gloom of her store.
She faces the next two to four hours or more without power and without sales.
With her tiny profit margins her business is daily hammered by the incompetence, negligence and wholesale thievery characterised by this government and its so-called watch over Eskom.
To experience the true disaster which is the South African power debacle, these mini-tragedies of one-person businesses have to be borne in mind.
They struggle against impossible and unfair odds while the government power supremos blandly come and go.
The unconvicted wrongdoers continue to lurk in the darkness of their creation.
—– Neil Veitch
