₦airaland Forum

owo:
[size=18pt]Sometimes it is better not to be a Nigerian than to be a confused and ignorant one.[/size]

You nailed it!

“Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today”

- Mahatma Gandhi quotes (Indian Philosopher, internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest, 1869-1948)

Seun:
All politicians tell lies all the time, so I won't hold it against him as a candidate. GEJ also said that he would only stay in power for one term.

GBAM!

I hope the pact covers cyberspace.

The e-war here is something else!

Asiwaju9ja:
You twisted the prayers. However, I do not want to ruin my life. I want to Change it. That's why am voting Buhari. I campaigned and voted for Jonathan in 2011 and he embarrassed me. He is still embarassing his supporters. Tinubu and FasholaLagos for a fact, whether they are enriching themselves from it, remains for the EFCC and other anti-graft bodies to prove. They are not untouchables.

So your expectation is that when Buhari becomes president, EFCC will go after them, ba?

Let the leaders of the "developed" world #BringBokoHaramToJustice and their press #ReportNigeriaCorrectly

Daz all!

GenBuhari:
When I say Ebola reporting was all lies people call me conspiracy theorist.

Now u see for yourself how corrupt the Western news media is.

Let the leaders of the "developed" world #BringBokoHaramToJustice and their press #ReportNigeriaCorrectly

Daz all!

realborn:
Wow.

Stunned at the passion and compassion expressed by this compassionate man from South Africa many miles away. He is even proposing an intervention by the SA government on our behalf. What brotherly love is more?

In Paris, few people died and there was an immediate military action followed by a solidarity march led by their President and supported by other world leaders due to the evident seriousness to put an end to the Melee. Here in Nigeria our leader is busy casting aspersions at the opposition because his reelection is more important than the lives lost daily. How did we get this low?

Brotherly love?

I laugh in Zulu!

The solidarity march you mentioned was attended by Hollande (Government) and Sarkozy (Opposition)

Is that possible here?

Everything is politics here!

iterator24:
dude, 15% of the country is battling terrorism the rest is safe! SA on the other hand has crime problem..54 people die in SA everyday go figure!

The level of low self esteem often demonstrated by our compatriots is depressing!

(No pun intended)

diluminati:
[size=18pt]you are just talking trash. please don't derail the thread and start talking about electricity.

We want to be focused on gej's cluelessness. Even CNN floored gej so they have problems too? [/size]

Let's not talk about electricity?

Ok let's talk about the intervention he is suggesting.

Do you remember their "Intervention" in CAR and how it ended in a disaster and shame?

Let me jog your memory with this article from an SA newspaper:

Central African Republic: Is this what our soldiers died for?
28 MAR 2013 00:00 AMABHUNGANE REPORTERS


The lure of arms deals and diamonds – and possibly other mineral resources – sucked the ANC into the Central African Republic.

South African military involvement in the Central African Republic has from the start been entwined with ANC-linked deals, raising questions about the motivation for the disastrous deployment of South African troops to the troubled country.

The figure at the centre of the web is the politically connected businessperson and fixer Didier Pereira.

Pereira is currently partnered to the ANC security supremo and fundraiser, Paul Langa, and former spy chief Billy Masetlha. Their group has initiated several business projects in CAR, including some involving diamonds

Previously, he partnered with ANC hard man Joshua "General" Nxumalo and the ANC funding front, Chancellor House, in an initiative that involved security and attempts to gain a diamond export monopoly in the CAR.

Pereira, originally from Congo-Brazzaville, is a special adviser to the recently toppled CAR president, François Bozizé.

He has maintained business ties with powerful ANC security and intelligence figures during both the Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma presidencies.

Although the ANC figures who Pereira does business with has changed between presidencies, the nature of his dealings have remained consistent.


Quid pro quo?
[b]As the security situation in the CAR deteriorated in October last year, Pereira brokered direct access to Zuma for Bozizé's son and CAR defence minister, Francis Bozizé, in a bid to "unlock a sensitive weapons delivery issue", the specialist publication Intelligence Online reported recently.

Bozizé Jnr does not appear to have got what he came for because of South Africa's statutory weapons trade controls, but Pereira's reported role as a facilitator of this key meeting is noteworthy.

A CAR diplomat in Pretoria, who did want to be named because of the fluid political situation back home, said that Pereira had lived in South Africa for "more than 20 years" and that he was a recognisable figure among embassy staff.

He also previously partnered with a notorious Zimbabwean arms dealer, John Bredenkamp, according to sources with a detailed knowledge of the central African region and company searches in South Africa.

Other South African-linked interests in the CAR include the Canadian-based gold exploration and mining company, Axmin. Its president and chief executive, George Roach, was also associated with UraMin, a politically well-connected uranium prospecting company, which is said to have enjoyed Thabo Mbeki's backing when it won a concession in the CAR.

The concession was later sold to the French nuclear multinational, Areva.

The oil exploration company, DIG Oil, which also enjoyed Mbeki-era political support, has an oil concession in the south west of the country.

[/b]To the rescue
Bozizé's rule of the CAR has been precarious after he toppled his predecessor, Ange-Félix Patassé, in a coup in 2003, which was condemned at the time by both Mbeki and his then-deputy, Zuma.

Bozizé won an election in 2005 that excluded Patassé from the ballot, but his grip on power was soon threatened by Patassé-linked rebels. As Bozizé's military situation worsened, he sought help from South Africa.

A joint South African Defence Force (SANDF) and defence department "fact-finding mission" went to the CAR in January 2006. A flurry of diplomacy between Pretoria and Bangui in April that year culminated in the then-defence minister, Terror Lekota, signing a co-operation agreement in defence, minerals and energy at the end of that month, which he followed up with an "onsite assessment" trip to the CAR in May.


Pereira was quick off the mark. On May 18, a week after Lekota's return, he signed a memorandum of understanding with the CAR mining ministry. It envisaged the creation of a public-private partnership, Inala Centrafrique, according to documents of Inala and its business partners, which were obtained by the Mail & Guardian.

ANC stake
[b]Inala Centrafrique was formally registered in August 2006. Over time, its shareholding was settled at a 35% stake for the CAR government and 65% going to a South African company, Serengeti Group Holdings. The latter was majority-owned by Nxumalo, whose notoriety during the ANC underground days was underscored by his part in the Virodene vitamins-for-Aids scandal.

Significant stakes also belonged to Pereira and the Chancellor House Trust, share registers show.

An Inala Centrafrique business proposal to the CAR government, dated July 6 2007, retrospectively confirmed that “the joint venture is a culmination of the accord signed by both … Mbeki … and Bozizé … during the meeting of the governments in South Africa in … 2006 for the two countries to work together.”

It identified Nxumalo as chief executive and Pereira as chief operations officer.

While this deal was being hammered out behind the scenes, South Africa signed a formal, five-year defence co-operation agreement with the CAR on February 11 2007, involving both the deployment of South African troops and the provision of military equipment.

Zuma renewed the agreement in December last year, on the grounds of which, in the face of the growing crisis, he ordered a reinforcement of troops to the CAR in January this year.
[/b]
Diamonds and arms
The Inala Centrafrique joint venture between the CAR government and Pereira, Nxumalo and the Chancellor House Trust was primarily a mechanism to buy diamonds from the CAR's small-scale miners.

But the plan had two other elements, which, if implemented, would give Inala and its ANC-linked shareholders total dominance of the CAR's diamond market.

The first was an initiative to create and equip, on behalf of the state, a police des mines, or mining police, to combat illegal diamond dealing.


The second element, it appears from the documents and an interview with a would-be Inala business partner, was for Inala to be granted an export monopoly by the CAR government.

In other words, although its majority shareholding was privately held, Inala would have been endowed with part of the form and function of a state agency: a national diamond exporter with an associated police enforcement arm.

Dividends of more than $800-million over 10 years were envisaged.

In a further example of the conflation of South African state and ANC party interests, a Serengeti subsidiary partnered with a South African armoured vehicle business, Mechanology, in September 2007 to revamp decommissioned armoured vehicles that the SANDF had offered to donate to Bozizé.

The armoured vehicle deal broke down, apparently because there was a dispute over who would pay for the refurbishment.

Inala's attempts to control the CAR diamond mining industry fizzled out by March 2008.

New ANC partners
By then, the Zuma-linked faction of the ANC's security and intelligence apparatus appears to have inherited the relationship with Pereira from Serengeti.

At about the same time that Serengeti dropped the ball on the armoured vehicles and the Inala diamond deal collapsed, a company called Bagamoyo Investment Holdings was formed with Pereira as a founding director.

Chief among Pereira's co-directors in Bagamoyo is Langa who, like Nxumalo before him, comes with a heavy-hitting ANC security and intelligence pedigree, but also with strong whiffs of controversy.

He was suspended and later dismissed as chief executive of the Robben Island Museum after a forensic audit found a R25-million hole in the company accounts back in 2008.

Langa was head of security co-ordination at ANC headquarters in the late 1990s. His Zonkizizwe group of companies appear to perform both security and fundraising functions for the ANC.

Other directors in Bagamoyo included:

Fabien Singaye, a former Rwandan diplomat who served as Bozize's personal adviser and is alleged to have played a central role in the purchase of CAR uranium assets by UraMin, a company with a number of South African links; and
John Robertson, an IT specialist who works with Langa in the Zonkizizwe controlled Tsohle Technology Holdings.
Masetlha confirmed that Baga­moyo was set up to exploit opportunities in CAR.

Masetlha said: "Our role was to try and engage South African business persons to invest in the area. Pereira happened to be one of the people who knew CAR well. I agreed to get involved and spoke to Paul []."

Masetlha, who is recovering from a long illness, said he was hazy about the details but added that Lazarus Mbethe was brought in as well, because of his business acumen.

Masetlha, Pereira, Langa and Mbethe appear as directors in two other shelf companies, Evening Star Trading 665 and Universal Pulse Trading 117, both set up in November 2006.

Mbethe is heavily involved in mining. He was part of the Pitsa ya Sechaba consortium that partnered with Chancellor House and the Russian company, Renova, to form United Manganese of Kalahari, which controversially got manganese rights in Northern Cape.


Masetlha said he and his partners were trying to get involved in stabilising the country through development. Projects he recalled included the refurbishment of a hotel, which is understood to have been the Oubangui Hotel, with which Pereira has also been associated.

He confirmed Langa had been "there on the ground" frequently – "he's been in and out" – and had concerned himself particularly with security issues.

Most significantly, Masetlha confirmed the group had an interest in diamonds from the region and had owned a barge to be used for alluvial diamond mining somewhere upstream on the Ubangi River where the group had a diamond concession.

He said the group had also discussed upgrading some of the main roads and the airport, but little progress had been made because of the instability in the country.

"The problem was security … the SA government got involved in trying to help Bozizé at least beef up his personal protection," said Masetlha.

No comment
Masetlha and another South African businessperson who has contact with Pereira independently supplied the same cell number for him.

When the M&G contacted the number and asked for Pereira, the man who answered the phone said he was Pereira. But when the M&G identified itself and indicated it wished to talk about the CAR, the person who answered said it was a wrong number. He refused to give his name and hung up.

Mbethe said he was in a meeting and then hung up the second time the M&G phoned him.

Robertson said he was not involved in Bagamoyo and referred questions to Langa.

Attempts to contact Langa by phone were unsuccessful. Written questions faxed to him at his request were unanswered at the time of going to press.

A spokesperson for the presidency was unavailable to comment.

http://mg.co.za/article/2013-03-28-00-central-african-republic-is-this-what-our-soldiers-died-for

Weah96:
Fox News has a different audience than CNN. Their viewers are openly anti Muslim, anti immigration, anti Obama, anti black people, you name it.

He was only saying what his audience wanted to hear.

That's no excuse for CNN to report lies!

#ReportNigeriaCorrectly and #BringBokoHaramToJustice

iterator24:
I'm in SA.. I know him well.. besides, SA couldn't help themselves in CAR they want to help Nigeria lol

GBAM!

TonySpike:
Who is this guy posting articles about load-shedding in South Africa. Is he even aware that the overall electrical power generated in Nigeria is slightly higher than the power consumption in just Johannesburg, South Africa? As at 2013, the city of Johannesburg consumed well over 3500 MW everyday alone!! Whereas, Nigeria generates roughly 4500 MW for its citizens. Isn't that shameful?

Yes it is shameful but the ANC government has not been able to maintain the power system.

President Zuma's government is blaming the problem on Apartheid after twenty years of ANC rule.

What would be the reply of an average Nigerian to any government at any level blaming the military for any problem?

I maintain my stance, let Malema face their problem and leave Nigeria alone.

He is a known attention seeker who enjoys taking cheap shots!

@Anglovel

#ReportNigeriaCorrectly is already on Twitter.

You can tweet too

Had enough of load-shedding? Time to invest in a generator
SOUTH AFRICAThursday 11 December 2014 - 12:11pm


CAPE TOWN - With no end in sight to the power cuts, many South Africans are turning to other sources to solve their energy woes.

One of the simplest is a generator.

With more power blackouts on the cards due to Eskom’s load-shedding, eNCA decided to visit a local retailer to find out more about using generators as an alternative power source.


http://www.enca.com/south-africa/enough-load-shedding-invest-generator

Had enough of load-shedding? Time to invest in a generator
SOUTH AFRICAThursday 11 December 2014 - 12:11pm


CAPE TOWN - With no end in sight to the power cuts, many South Africans are turning to other sources to solve their energy woes.

One of the simplest is a generator.

With more power blackouts on the cards due to Eskom’s load-shedding, eNCA decided to visit a local retailer to find out more about using generators as an alternative power source.


http://www.enca.com/south-africa/enough-load-shedding-invest-generator

Change2015:
And it seems you don't understand my point. South Africans have better access and more electricity at their disposal. Check my link. How can you sitting in darkness be throwing stones at the people who have not made an industry out of importing better-pass-my-neighbour generators YET? South Africa may have its problems, but we have nothing to be smug about. Jonathan has made sure of that!

#change
#GMB
#APC

Fixed!

Change2015:
Chose your insults wisely. South Africa accounts for two thirds of the total power generated in Africa. We are the country in perpetual darkness. With a population that is barely one third of ours, South Africa still generates about eight times (yes 8x) the electricity we generate.
http://www.eia.gov/cfapps/ipdbproject/iedindex3.cfm?tid=2&pid=2&aid=7&cid=r6,&syid=2012&eyid=2012&unit=MK

#change
#GMB
#APC

More:

Newspapers print survival tips and “load shedder recipes” for food you can prepare without electricity.

And there are bleak jokes aplenty. “Q: What did South Africa use before candles? A: Electricity.”


https://www.nairaland.com/1791233/only-naija-3#29791271

South Africa’s electricity crisis Unplugged


Rolling power cuts are fraying tempers
Jan 3rd 2015 | JOHANNESBURG | From the print edition


THE people of South Africa are learning to live in the dark. Their beleaguered power utility, Eskom, is unable to meet electricity demand and in November reintroduced a tortuous schedule of rolling blackouts known as “load shedding”. South Africans now check electricity reports that read like weather forecasts: “There is a medium probability of load shedding today and tomorrow, with a higher probability on Thursday and Friday,” said a recent Eskom tweet.

Newspapers print survival tips and “load shedder recipes” for food you can prepare without electricity. And there are bleak jokes aplenty. “Q: What did South Africa use before candles? A: Electricity.”


The power cuts are hurting an already stagnant economy, estimated to have expanded by just 1.4% in 2014. Both big industry and small businesses are feeling the pinch. Meanwhile Eskom has warned that the blackouts could drag on for months, perhaps even years, as it struggles with a maintenance backlog and a barrage of technical problems at its ageing power stations. There are delays in bringing new capacity online, particularly at Medupi, a heralded new coal-fired plant whose completion has been endlessly postponed.

In this section
After the passing
Unplugged
Death of a general
Don’t be ageist
Reprints
Related topics
Jacob Zuma
South Africa
Eskom Holdings
South Africa has been here before. In 2008 it suffered a rash of blackouts that cost the country billions of rand. Little has changed. There are increasingly loud calls from economists, business councils and opposition politicians for Eskom to be privatised, or at least for independent companies to be allowed to sell more power to the grid. Such a move would probably be opposed fiercely by South Africa’s powerful labour unions, which have long fought any steps toward privatisation.

Eskom is not the only state-run firm in trouble. South Africa’s government recently announced that it would take direct control of two other ailing state companies: debt-riddled South African Airways and the strike-racked postal service. All three will be overseen by Cyril Ramaphosa, the country’s vice-president, a former trade-union leader turned business mogul, who returned full-time to politics ahead of the general election in April 2014. Mr Ramaphosa has become a troubleshooter for some of the government’s thorniest problems. His involvement in Eskom has been widely welcomed.

President Jacob Zuma has blamed apartheid as the root cause of South Africa’s electricity woes, noting that the system was built to funnel power to white homes. “The problem is that energy was structured racially to serve a particular race, not the majority,” he told delegates at a recent Young Communist League congress in Cape Town. In the past two post-apartheid decades, the government led by the African National Congress has indeed made great strides in bringing power to the rest of the country. Mr Zuma says 11m households now have electricity, twice as many as in 1994. But this is cold comfort for a country now united in darkness. Eskom’s woes—crumbling old power stations, delays in the building of new plant—were widely predicted, for example in a white paper written for the government in 1998. Few South Africans think Mr Zuma’s explanations shed light on the subject.

http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21637396-rolling-power-cuts-are-fraying-tempers-unplugged

Change2015:
Chose your insults wisely. South Africa accounts for two thirds of the total power generated in Africa. We are the country in perpetual darkness. With a population that is barely one third of ours, South Africa still generates about eight times (yes 8x) the electricity we generate.
http://www.eia.gov/cfapps/ipdbproject/iedindex3.cfm?tid=2&pid=2&aid=7&cid=r6,&syid=2012&eyid=2012&unit=MK

#change
#GMB
#APC

Seems you did not the read the link I provided. Here are excerpts:

[b]Eskom says it will run out of money to buy diesel by the middle of next month.

JOHANNESBURG - Eskom has warned that without additional funding to buy diesel, load shedding will be continuous and ongoing because the utility won't be able to operate its open gas turbines.

The utility says the power grid remains vulnerable and any technical issues or generator problems may force it to implement rolling blackouts at a moment’s notice.

Eskom has experienced major supply problems since last year when a coal silo collapsed at the Majuba Power Station in Mpumalanga which reduced supply by about 1,800 megawatts.

Stage one load shedding was implemented on Friday for the first time this year when generators suddenly broke down, forcing the power giant to cut electricity without notice.


Eskom says it will run out of money to buy diesel by the middle of next month and it’s waiting for feedback from government on whether it will receive funds to keep the lights on.

The utility has been running open gas turbines extensively in the last few months to keep up with electricity demands but at the same time spending billions of rands to buy diesel to operate them.

Eskom’s Andrew Etzinger says by February, the parastatal will simply not have the money.

“If we are not able to secure the additional funding, it would mean quite a big risk of load shedding on an ongoing basis.”

A government meeting on the power supply issues and how to help Eskom will take place soon.

At the same time, energy experts and economists have warned a government bailout will not help Eskom in the long-term to deal with the electricity crisis.

The parastatal said it's expecting about R20 billion from government to help it continue buying diesel.


“The government has failed to come up with a credible and sustainable national energy policy and therefore it has placed extraordinary pressures on Eskom.”

On Monday, Eskom's financial woes remained firmly in the spotlight but there's no indication as to how or when government will assist.

Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene reportedly read the riot act to Eskom bosses, saying they must sort out their problems which are affecting the

Eskom spokesperson Andrew Etzinger says they are waiting for feedback from government on how they'll buy diesel when funds run out.

Eskom says while the power grid is stable, load shedding remains a risk this week.

It warned South Africans must be prepared for load shedding at all times.

The company, which supplies 95 percent of South Africa’s power supply, said the grid can change at any time.

Eskom has also been battling with ageing infrastructure and limited generating capacity.
[/b]

Read the full story here:

https://www.nairaland.com/1791233/only-naija-3#29790227

He should just shut up and face their power problem!



https://www.nairaland.com/1791233/only-naija-3#29790227

Meanwhile, #BringBokoHaramToJustice #ReportNigeriaCorrectly #ReportAfricaCorrectly

[size=18pt]ESKOM: LOAD SHEDDING WILL BE ONGOING PROBLEM WITHOUT BAILOUT[/size]

Eskom says it will run out of money to buy diesel by the middle of next month.

JOHANNESBURG - Eskom has warned that without additional funding to buy diesel, load shedding will be continuous and ongoing because the utility won't be able to operate its open gas turbines.

The utility says the power grid remains vulnerable and any technical issues or generator problems may force it to implement rolling blackouts at a moment’s notice.

Eskom has experienced major supply problems since last year when a coal silo collapsed at the Majuba Power Station in Mpumalanga which reduced supply by about 1,800 megawatts.

Stage one load shedding was implemented on Friday for the first time this year when generators suddenly broke down, forcing the power giant to cut electricity without notice.


Eskom says it will run out of money to buy diesel by the middle of next month and it’s waiting for feedback from government on whether it will receive funds to keep the lights on.

The utility has been running open gas turbines extensively in the last few months to keep up with electricity demands but at the same time spending billions of rands to buy diesel to operate them.

Eskom’s Andrew Etzinger says by February, the parastatal will simply not have the money.

“If we are not able to secure the additional funding, it would mean quite a big risk of load shedding on an ongoing basis.”

A government meeting on the power supply issues and how to help Eskom will take place soon.

[b]At the same time, energy experts and economists have warned a government bailout will not help Eskom in the long-term to deal with the electricity crisis.

The parastatal said it's expecting about R20 billion from government to help it continue buying diesel.

Energy expert Chris Yelland says Eskom needs to look at the fundamental business problems.

“Throwing money at this is not the solution. It will become like a black hole if you don’t address the underlying issues it simply means that in a period of time they will need more money.”

Economist Iraj Abedian says a coherent national energy policy is needed.

“The government has failed to come up with a credible and sustainable national energy policy and therefore it has placed extraordinary pressures on Eskom.”

On Monday, Eskom's financial woes remained firmly in the spotlight but there's no indication as to how or when government will assist.

Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene reportedly read the riot act to Eskom bosses, saying they must sort out their problems which are affecting the economy.
[/b]
It is understood government will “play its part” but Nene warns that day-to-day operations are the utility's responsibility.

Eskom spokesperson Andrew Etzinger says they are waiting for feedback from government on how they'll buy diesel when funds run out.

“The critical issues are being dealt with and at the right time, government will make an announcement.”

Eskom says while the power grid is stable, load shedding remains a risk this week.

It warned South Africans must be prepared for load shedding at all times.

The company, which supplies 95 percent of South Africa’s power supply, said the grid can change at any time.

Eskom has also been battling with ageing infrastructure and limited generating capacity.

POWER CUTS AFFECTING SEIFSA

The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (Seifsa) says the manufacturing industry contracted by 2.5 percent last year as a result of power cuts by Eskom.

Seifsa says the disrupted power supply led to a contraction of between five and 13 percent in the rubber, structured steel and general purpose machinery sub industries.

Last year, the metals industry was hit by a five month long strike in the platinum sector and a further month long strike by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) before load shedding started in November.

Seifsa's members represent about 34 percent of the manufacturing sector and its chief economist says the power cuts are stifling growth.

http://ewn.co.za/2015/01/13/Eskom-Load-shedding-an-ongoing-problem-without-govt-bailout

Trailblazer1:
Make it trend.

#ReportNigeriaCorrectlyCNN

[size=18pt]
Let's make it #ReportNigeriaCorrectly

This is because this is not restricted to CNN[/size]

Meanwhile #BringBokoHaramToJustice

[size=18pt]Eskom’s loan shedding hurting the working class most![/size]

26 December 2014, 14:57

Ordinary people are more adversely affected by load-shedding. It is affecting jobs and livelihoods and is sinking our economy.
Since 2008, South Africa has been experiencing challenges with the regular disruptions to its electricity supply. These challenges are a consequence of, among others, the rapid and unprecedented connection of millions of South Africans who were excluded from the electricity grid.

When South Africa celebrated 20 years of democracy this year, our country also marked the historic milestone of more than 11 million households having access to electricity, which is double the number from 1994.

Although the broadening of access should be celebrated, it has not been without the share of problems. This wide-scale roll out was carried out without the necessary concomitant investment being made to expand the country’s generating capacity and to ensure energy security in the immediate future.

Ageing infrastructure and the numerous delays in the completion of the building of additional power stations have compounded the problem.

As citizens, we are very concerned about the effect of the current and ongoing load-shedding programme undertaken by Eskom.

While we understand that load-shedding may be a necessity as a means of conserving energy, as per the explanation provided by Eskom, we urge power utility to communicate these schedules better.

This will minimize the inconvenience and inevitable disruptions to businesses and households alike.

I hear many analysts say that only 17% of our electricity goes to residential consumers. This is wrong. These are the residential consumers who get their electricity direct from Eskom only. If we add those who get their electricity from Municipalities, the figure grows to 48%.

It is indeed tragic that Eskom squandered an opportunity in the post apartheid era.

The parastatal has failed to implement labour centric, community controlled, municipal-empowering renewable energy projects.

Big business takes up about 50% of Eskom’s power but this hasn’t limited the adverse effect of load-shedding to them. Load-shedding is for all.
It would really be helpful if there was good communication between the government, Eskom and affected stakeholders.

We need good quality leadership from Eskom and government. They need to tell us if we are in a crisis so that we can make contingency, like buying generators, and putting up solar panels.

Government must also move quickly to get alternative energy generation like wind and solar, not Russian nuclear power/

Small business is reeling because of load-shedding.

[b]One of the negative consequences of this load-shedding, especially for the workers, is that industries, heavily reliant on electricity for production, are already contemplating cutting down the cost of production through retrenchments.
This will be a direct assault on the workers, amidst the triple crisis of poverty, unemployment and inequality faced by the working class and the poor.

These sections of society are hardest hit by this load-shedding and they are switching from electricity to dirty household energy such as wood, coal and paraffin – while the comfortable rich and middle class are only beginning the feel the pinch.

We call on government to take responsibility for the crisis and to fix it, as their misguided decisions are haunting us right now. The working class cannot afford to be permanently in the dark.

The politicians must stop promising people in rural areas and townships free electricity, water and free education during elections.

[/b]We need bold leaders in all state owned entities, and Eskom is no exception.

http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/Eskoms-loan-shedding-hurting-the-working-class-most-20141226