‘It feels as if we are in another pandemic!’ Thabong residents fumes, as Eskom ramps up Stage 6 load shedding

The prolonged power outages have caused more frustrations for Thabong residents, as the embattled power utility intensified Stage 6 load shedding since Tuesday this week.

Kasi Voice News reached out to the disgruntled communities to have a better clear understanding of how the power cuts has affected their lives.

For some residents they correlate the recent power cuts to the global pandemic, Covid-19 when it first knocked in 2020.

“I feel like it’s putting not only my life at risk, but also 95% of people who are working, as some have to walk to and from work. Imagine having to walk in the dark during the early hours of the morning, in an unsafe neighbourhood is like we are in another pandemic,’’ said Mojabeng Rantsho, one of the disgruntled community members in Thabong.

Furthermore, residents said the intensified that load shedding alone is an expense and inconvenience to daily lives in general, as it affects the community directly or indirectly.

Others raised their concerns in regards to the negative impacts power cuts has on their businesses.

“As someone who is running an online business, the power cuts affects me very negatively, annoying I can say. I regularly have to reschedule the meetings and deadlines to accommodate load shedding and that makes me to look incompetent to my clients,” Nkanunu asserted.

The citizens plead with the government to foremost eradicate corruption by minimising the sale of copper markets in the country, since a lot of money is spent because of cable theft.

One of the residents recalled of an incident that occurred last year during load shedding, where the izinyoka guys used to cut cables during the load shedding.

Furthermore, they suggested that the government should open up to the public for solutions and ideas that can save Eskom from being overloaded, while others said that government should re-consider privatising the embattled power utility.

“The government depends on the improvement of the economy but power cuts are in the way of that, this means 4 hours without effective business. For some businesses that’s half a day and for some it means an entire business day,’’ She further said.

Data shows that South Africa is still headed for a record year of power cuts.

“According to the Presidency, South Africa has a shortfall of around 4,000MW of electricity generating power. It is possible that this shortfall is significantly larger given that Eskom’s energy availability factor (EAF) was revised downward from 72% to 63% in its latest Medium-Term System Adequacy Outlook (2022-2026),” PwC said.

With the above findings, the residents of Welkom defined load shedding as the grave issue of concerns, as it has badly impacted both their lives and businesses.