The other day I mentioned about a friend of mine who owns a factory close by and he hasn't had electricity for 15 days now. You don't realise how bad things are until it happens to you as up until that point is hasn't really affected your daily life. Not having electricity due to outages is something we have lived with for over 14 years now, but instead of improving they are deteriorating.
10pm tonight which is expected to possibly mean some time on Saturday. This is the 4th incident just in the last month in this area. Possibly the ones repairing are the ones taking the cable as this is quite common.
Last night our power was cut off and possibly will be back tonight or Saturday or who knows how long. The problem is cable theft and the situation is deteriorating rapidly across the country. There is even courses being taken by syndicates to help individuals or groups master the art of stealing electricity cables. Only in Africa and very little is being done about this.
They dig two holes cutting the cable at both holes and remove the cable. This time it was 78 m which is a serious amount of meterage.
Since two days ago I know of three more factories down who are unable to manufacture so this is not just arbitrary incidents, but grand theft. My family is working from home today as there business had no power this morning and the need to use the internet and computers to process orders is obviously a requirement. Drivers have been shuttling back and forth collecting invoices and delivery notes so they can continue business as usual.
The problem is this is suffocating the economy quicker than Covid Lockdowns and I fear for the outcome as there is no end in sight. One can ban the sale or export of scrap metal but then the authorities say that will cause job losses. What is the alternative as job losses are going to be far worse when industry shuts down and this is happening far quicker than people realise.
I think it is too widespread to make a real difference and they need to up the penalties for infrastructure crime as the death penalty should be reinstated. Maybe harsh but something has to be done and quickly.
Copper bar exports are up by over 4000X just in the last 10 years which tells you where all the copper from the stolen cables is heading. The country is in a crisis yet very little is happening as law enforcement cannot keep pace. Just the railway company Transnet has over 15 incidents every single day 365 days a year.
People say the first signs of when an economy collapses from infrastructure failings then it is time to leave. This has been slowly getting worse and worse and actually feel sorry for everyone directly affected. The problem is this affects the entire country and has far wider consequences than just the factories as the economy is shrinking at a drastic rate.
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well this is just terrible. People really don't GAF about anyone do they? I have a friend here that is going to be moving back to South Africa in a few weeks and she is very nervous about doing so.
No one GAF and is very sad. Power came back on nearly 40 hors later and now wait for it to go again. I wouldn't be moving back as there is very little positive about this place. I am making moves and pondering an offer.
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What a bunch of assholes. I hope the law will change and give them much higher jail time if caught.
They don’t realize that this is setting back hundreds of people! It impacts people, schools. factories, hospitals…
These are the stuff that hold back countries for months if not years.
South Africa has become a sad country it seems. I unfortunately was calling it years ago because of failed leadership from politicians but ALSO from the people blaming others for their own issues.
I understand the very difficult history might have been what brought it to this state. But it has been 20 years that the situation has gotten worse and worse…
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You are right the actions of a few are impacting millions. Nothing will happen as they look after their own and it is their own people that are doing this. The country will never improve until crime is under control. They always blame the past instead of looking at themselves. Look at Botswana what they have achieved and there is no crime due to a no nonsense policy.
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Good luck mate. You will fare better than the average South African but still hard for you I imagine…
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This is terrible. I didn't think SA had this kind of problem and I considered that a more reasonable country than mine when I was looking through relocation options.
What exactly do they do with the cables? Do they sell them back to the government? I won't be surprised if they did.
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No. They melt them down as they are copper and make copper bars for export. Unemployment is seriously high so crime is on the increase and would not advise to relocate here honestly. Definitely not fun if you are a foreigner here as I know quite a few and they are always fearful for backlashes. Foreigners are being blamed for the crime by the locals as the majority doing it are.
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I feel your pain!! I am in Pretoria, currently we only have load shedding and not other outages. A while back my parents had a very long outage, and it was quite an issue to keep everything going with a generator!!
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Yes today we have already had to fill the generator up twice since last night. The situation is just ridiculous and a few more months of this and businesses will have no choice but to close up. My friends business has been in the family since the late sixties and this is the worst they have experienced. You guys are lucky and hope the cable theft doesn't encroach up your way.
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Yes, we are lucky!!
Darn those people, they're just horrible to be doing such. It's bad enough when there's power outage for a day, how much more if it lasts for days.
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I believe your country should fine a way real quick to fix this. This will have big stamp on your economy over time
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That's pretty horrible. Maybe they need to go old school Biblical and chop off their hands when they get caught stealing. That might be a little more reasonable than the death penalty. It's still to bad that you are having to deal with this.
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This one is real thief, is not today they started. Most of them are electric official.
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Nobody takes accountability and the best effort is always, meetings about meetings. Nobody in power is interested in actually getting anything done. Hard work and true dedication are viewed as an inferior approach, After all, if you say something needs to be addressed, is it not addressed? This is the broken mindset evident at every critical point of South African governance and those of "influence"...
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Where I live they cut the electricity because a simple little bird pees on an electric wire, so we are in the same situation.
But here it is not that the cables are stolen, it is that the national electric company that has monopolized the whole sector, does not do any maintenance at all and the deterioration and lack of investment cause havoc.
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That's crazy, I had no idea this is a thing, what an incredibility difficult situation, they need guards or something. Hoping your country finds a way to handle this.
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This sounds absolutely horrible, the collapsing of a nation. The government's main job is to ensure the infrastructure to deliver basic needs to its citizens. Hopefully, things change fast but without an influx of resources to law enforcement that does not seem likely.