TOM EATON: Load shedding for dummies: from dinkum shortage to ‘Suck on that, Cyril’
It could have been coincidence, of course, that stage 2 load shedding followed days after announcement that SA’s biggest crisis will be divided into three, more manageable ones
So now we know. Stage 1 load shedding means 1,000MW must be cut from the national grid. Stage 2 means there is talk about unbundling Eskom. And stage 4 means “Suck on that, Cyril”. Of course I could be wrong. It is possible that the events of the past few days were entirely unconnected. It could have been mere coincidence that Eskom instituted stage 2 load shedding three days after the president announced his intention to divide the country’s biggest crisis into three, more manageable crises. It might be nothing more than a fluke of the calendar that Eskom predicts load shedding will continue into April, which happens to be just days before the general elections. It might have been pure chance that Eskom “lost” six generating units on Monday, leapfrogging stage 3 altogether and reminding us what power really means; who has it, and who doesn’t. I also don’t want to point fingers at innocent parties. Many South Africans, for example, believe that Eskom has metastasised into a potentia...
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