Imilender's tour in Sub-saharan africa

The SA power crisis continues. Last thursday was the worst day in the history. Eskom was forced to shed of 4000 MW of power as 25% of the national production capacity was out of use due to ruotine maintenance, faults at power stations and wet coal. We were for 6 hours straight without power and got to test out our inverter. It worked very nicely and we had electricity in our lights, we could use microwave to heat up food and we even had our Internet connection up. It was quite a relieve to have some power even during the power cut.

After that we have had no powercuts as the gold and platinum mines were closed as Eskom could not quarantee their power supply. The result of the power cuts were that platinum and gold prices went to all time high. Only now on wednesday the mines are starting operations again as Eskom is promising that they could have power again. Of course the general public is fearing if it will lead to more blackouts in residential areas.

The blackouts has also lead to new innovative ways to make money. Some people are waiting for the blackouts and during one go and steal the cables. They then go and sell the cable for scrap metal. Generator and UPS sales have scyrocketed and electricians are all busy installing them. Some smaller gated communities and single standing houses are fearing criminals as they loose their security systems during the blackout. Fortunately we are living in Dainfern where they do have a contingency plan for blackouts. Our security has backup generators and our security can operate as well during a blackout as when Eskom is providing the power.