‘My husband cannot breathe during load-shedding,’ protester says

Prolonged power outages create panic in the home of Ursula Jacobs as her husband relies on oxygen to breathe.

She was one of scores of people dressed in blue who gathered at Johannesburg’s Mary Fitzgerald Square on Wednesday morning ahead of the DA’s march against load-shedding to the ANC's headquarters, Luthuli House.

Jacobs, a resident of Moffat View, south of Johannesburg, said that in December, her electricity was switched off for load-shedding but the power did not return as scheduled due to a fault.

“On the Sunday morning my husband was struggling to breathe and the power still didn't come on. We had to rush him to hospital and he had to stay there for two weeks because we were without power for two weeks.”

She said the hospital supplied them with oxygen tanks to be used during blackouts.

“When we have electricity we use the oxygen machine. But with the increase in load-shedding, the oxygen tank only lasts him about two weeks.

“This is scary for us. My husband isn’t doing well,” she said.

Another protester, Boksburg undertaker and funeral home owner Riaan Jantjies, said load-shedding had halted the expansion of his business. He said he had intended to start manufacturing coffins but could not do so because of the ongoing power cuts.

He opened Jeanie Funeral Services, named after his late mother, during the pandemic in 2020.

“We have to use generators, which cost us about R2,000 to R3,000 per week in diesel,” he said.

But the business started slowing down when load-shedding worsened in 2022. “We find some of our customers go to other funeral homes, which are bigger,” said Jantjies.

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