Here we go again! This time it looks bad! Eskom says that load shedding will resume again as from today across the whole country. They say the load shedding is necessary for them to carry out maintenance work. But I do not buy this! There is something else behind this and it is not just maintenance work. It is no secret that there is just not enough power to run South Africa right now.
Eskom also say that the outages will be more predictable than they were in November and January. It hopes that scheduled load shedding will cause fewer disruptions, as people will be able to plan for the blackouts. Fair and fine if we are able to know exactly when the power would go but from previous experiences, the proposed schedule has not been followed. Eskom say that we can check on their website (www.eskom.co.za) to find out the schedule for your area. Read the rest of this entry »
If you are like me, you are looking forward to the soccer World Cup in South Africa in 2010. But my only concern is that, when the final whistle is blown in the final game in Johannesburg in 2010 and the soccer World Cup Champions are crowned, that could also be the final whistle being blown on South Africa.
Right now we are currently facing ridiculously high inflation of 9.4%, Eskom are proposing to increase the price of electricity in the country by over 50%, there is going to be a huge fuel price increase next month and chances are that interest rates are going to go up next month as well. Read the rest of this entry »
How crazy is Eskom! Last week they had the audacity to ask the government to allow them to increase electricity tariffs by 53%. This is on the back of an early increase of over 10% less than 4 months ago. Eskom seems to be a joke of a company and I am not sure if I am surprised. Like crime, Eskom has become one of the most detested parts of our country. Poor management and foolishness has led to a difficult and seemly endless electricity shortages in South Africa. You would think that the government would have taken some blame since Eskom is its baby and someone would have been fired but no, the president in his wisdom was of the view that the whole cabinet was to blame and not the then Minister of Energy, Phumuzile Mlambo-Ncguka. So if the whole cabinet is to blame they should fire themselves or humbly resign because what is happening is shamefully unacceptable. Read the rest of this entry »
The African National Congress (ANC) recently announced that it would like to deploy its Deputy-President Kglema Mothlanthe to the national government. On the face of it, this is an ingenious way to deal with the problem of the ‘two centres of government’ that emerged after the Polokwane Conference. However, the cynic in me is inclined to think, why did Mothlanthe waste our time? Why did he not just run for the ANC presidency and wait a year and become President of The Republic? For those up to speed with the implications of this is that, the ANC is subtly paving the way for Mothlanthe to become president of South Africa. Why did they not deploy Mattews Phosa or other members of the Zuma camp with government experience? This is a poorly veiled attempt of mitigating what now seems to be the inevitable charge and conviction of Jacob Zuma for corruption. So the ANC leadership is preparing its replacement candidate, who is Kglema Mothlanthe for the presidency. Read the rest of this entry »
I am not a scientist or Al Gore but I think Global Warming is real. I was not a believer in the beginning but after what has been happening in Johannesburg this past week, it’s safe to say Mr. Gore was right, we are going through a profound change in weather patterns and I am suffering for it. It’s like a cold rainy winter in Johannesburg and most of Southern Africa is at the height of summer. That’s just crazy, don’t you think? I woke up yesterday to news that the high temperature for the day was going to be 16 degrees Celsius. At first I thought I had slept through the rest of the summer and woke up in July. However, I was wrong I checked my calendar and I saw it was still March. WHAT! 16 degrees in summer! Read the rest of this entry »
Police brutality has been in the news for the last week or so after a Stellenbosch pub was raided by the South African Police Service (SAPS). Patrons were harassed and in some cases brutalised by those tasked with protecting citizens. Carte Blanche (M-Net) ran this past Sunday night and in true Carte Blanche fashion there may have been an underlying racial tone in the reporting. For those who don’t know Carte Blanche, it is Investigative News Magazine Television Show on M-Net, the largest Pay-TV channel in South Africa. It seems; for me at least, Carte Blanche seems to deal with more upper- Middle Class and White issues. So I’m not surprised that when an issue about the SAPS raiding a predominantly White pub in which they used excessive force, it’s a Carte Blanche headline issue. Read the rest of this entry »
Last week the Rand lost 3% in value, that’s a big a deal to those who may think this is a small loss but in this economic climate of high fuel prices, lack of consistent power supply and now a weak Rand, we, South Africans, maybe in for a hard year. A strong Rand used to somewhat offset increases in the oil price but that may not be the case today. So what can we say or better yet what are the economists and those in the Ministry of Finance and Treasury saying? Some have said its part of the global economic slow down led by the weakening American economy suffering the aftershocks of the Sub-Prime and credit crunch in capital markets. Others are saying that this is the curse of our economic growth. This has been the mantra by the government especially when it comes to electricity. Read the rest of this entry »
Zimbabwe seems to being in the news all the time. Sometimes I think Big South African Media love to sell papers using Zimbabwe. For most Zimbabwe is a pariah state especially to the rest of the world but it maybe more than that for us. Zimbabwe is a traditional political, economic and social ally of South Africa, probably the most important one in Southern Africa. But you would not think that with all the negative sentiment about Zimbabweans in the media or in work places or townships. As a South African I am sometimes embarrassed by how we treat other Africans. The crazy thing is that other African countries keep this country working, especially Zimbabwe. Read the rest of this entry »
Here we go again, word from Eskom is that loading shedding will resume again across South Africa at the end of March. Word is that the current electricity situation in South Africa is stable but still remains vulnerable. The large consumers of electricity in the country have apparently been doing a good job and have managed to cut down their power consumption by 10% whilst small businesses and households have not followed suite by cutting down their consumption by 10%. And now because of this inability to cut consumption by 10%, Eskom is going to ‘punish’ the small businesses and households by starting load shedding again. But they say that those who have cut consumption will be exempt. So I gather this means the big businesses and mines will be exempt as they have cut consumption by 10%. Read the rest of this entry »
An article in The Time headlined ‘SA Passport safe: Maseko’ suggested that South African passports are among the safest in the world according to an independent survey. This is t said by a government spokesman who then went on to say a new passport would be introduced within a few months which would contain additional security features.
Now firstly, if they say that our passports are among the top 5 safest in the world, why then do we need new passports? Surely that means they are not as safe as they make them out to be. The safety of South African passports has recently been bought up by the British who are thinking of introducing visa’s for South African’s to enter the UK. Now my understanding was that South Africans now need visas to enter the UK but I guess that is not the case according to the ‘SA Passport safe’ article. The article said: “Government would like to clarify that there was no decision by the British government at this stage to introduce visas to SA travellers,” Maseko said.
