South Africa's Eskom Monopoly Days Are Over
The title of this article is from the article which we shall get to shortly as we look into the electricity crises in South Africa.
It has been nothing but a nightmare as electricity outage otherwise known as load shedding has worsened since the beginning of the year, it appears to be getting worse as the days, months and years roll by.
In the second week of January 2023, there was load shedding for 10 to 12 hours in the west of Johannesburg where I reside.
The Damaging Impacts
For a nation known to keep its electricity on, it has been tough adjusting to having electricity for half a day, personally, my sleeping pattern has been disrupted as I sleep for a few hours and wake up to do some work when the power is back on.
I was at the shop to buy veggies last week and couldn't help but notice the shelves were half empty. A chat with the business owner had me realize how tougher it has been on businesses.
He stressed it is inevitable he will have to close down the business soon due to veggies getting spoiled and having to throw them away.
He explained that the refrigerator hardly gets cool to an effective degree before the next load shedding schedule kicks in.
The dejected look on his face told me I am staring at a man who is barely surviving with his business.
The damaging effect is being felt all over the nation whether big or small-time business owners or those that work from home everyone is feeling the impact.
Privatization
Privatizing a government entity is often the next move when these entities fail to deliver. This was the case in Nigeria when its National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) failed, it was privatized to Power Holding Company Nigeria (PHCN) and I can bet my life electricity is still a mess in that country.
Considering the way Eskom is failing to keep the lights on, having it privatized might be the option if things continue the way it is at present.
A civil action group known as AfriForum is working on a nuclear power company to help consumers become independent of Eskom.
Speaking to the City Press the group said it is fed up with South Africa’s decade-long battle with load shedding – which has caused significant disruptions to daily life and economic activity – and has engaged in discussions with specialist venture capital firm C5 Capital which invests in nuclear energy, among other things. Source
The long-term goal is for the nuclear power company to become the main source of electricity generation.
Could AfriForum be the solution South Africa need to keep its light on? Only time will tell.
Should all things go well having another option aside Eskom will give consumers choices on which to source their electricity consumption from.
South Africa has the power and resources to get out of the electricity crises it has created for itself, I hope it finds ways to make things right before it gets worse.
The current state of electricity in the country is shocking and if we look at the vandals for cable theft during load shedding, curbing the damages could get out of hand the longer the electricity crisis continues.
We owe it to ourselves to make Hive great
Image by @doze
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