We need a plan, Mr President as stage 6 load shedding appears to be the new normal

Zodwa Ndlozi who has a cooking business has been severely affected by the load shedding as she has to now spend money on gas which she can not afford . Picture by Nokuthula Mbatha.

Zodwa Ndlozi who has a cooking business has been severely affected by the load shedding as she has to now spend money on gas which she can not afford . Picture by Nokuthula Mbatha.

Published Jul 4, 2022

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Editorial

Johannesburg - South Africa headed into almost uncharted territory this week as Eskom announced stage 6 load shedding.

This wasn’t a brief aberration, but rather what seems to be the “new normal”.

There have been the usual platitudes from the utility, with some new villains for the saga in the form striking workers, while the government – reflective of the bigger internecine strife that is tearing the ruling party apart – has dithered as some ministers tried to throw others under the proverbial bus.

Load shedding is not new, but it is getting progressively worse.

The labour unrest is symptomatic of the broader malaise, not a problem in and of itself.

What is striking is the lack of real political leadership on this issue.

For two and half years, we had regular ‘family meetings’ about the presence of an invisible killer that threatened us all, necessitating a draconian restriction of our civil liberties.

We sat through nonsensical restrictions on movement, clothing and even cooked food, but at least there seemed to be a plan which President Cyril Ramaphosa would share with us.

This time there’s nothing. Not even a family meeting.

In fact, when we went to stage 6, the president was at the G7 meeting in Europe.

Why was he there, asked the wags on social media? To charge his cellphone? He may well have been, for all the good attending the meeting appears to have done the rest of us.

We need a plan, Mr President.

If you want to create prosperity and jobs by revitalising the economy, switching off the power for a minimum of six hours a day certainly isn’t going to help.

And if you can’t come up with a plan, South Africans will – even if it means rendering government irrelevant – because we don’t have another option.

The Saturday Star