LOADSHEDDING starts in 55 minutes. Every time our cellphones ping with that notification we sink a little deeper into despair.
We’ve been shed every day this year, there’s no end in sight – and when winter arrives, the misery will be magnified.
The electricity crisis was top of the agenda during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address. A minister of electricity will be appointed, he said, and a state of disaster has been declared that gives government additional powers to respond to the issue and cut red tape when it comes to emergency procurement procedures.
Loadshedding will end, Ramaphosa vowed – but South Africans are sceptical. We’ve been promised so much and seen so little delivered. Which is exactly why the city of Cape Town is taking the matter into its own hands.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis recently announced a loadshedding protection plan that aims to unshackle the Mother City from Eskom and protect it from four stages of loadshedding within the next three years.
Cape Town is already in a better position compared to other large cities as