Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Tuesday April 23 2019, @11:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the there's-an-app-for-that! dept.

Once the highly infrastructure developed economic powerhouse of Africa, South Africans these days are more interested in the outlook for rolling blackouts. The country’s most-downloaded app provides schedules, alerts and forecasts for power outages.

Eskom, the state power monopoly, is struggling to generate enough electricity to meet needs, and has re-introduced a byzantine system of rotating outages known as “load-shedding.” On February 11th a whopping 4,000 megawatts of power, enough to power some 3m households, was cut from the national grid to prevent it from collapsing. Some businesses have bought generators and battery systems; others close during outages. In big cities, there is chaos at rush hour as traffic lights go dark. The blackouts suit copper-cable thieves, who can steal without fear of electrocution. And when the electricity is switched backed on, substations sometimes explode, resulting in secondary outages.

https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2019/02/21/why-the-lights-keep-going-out-in-south-africa
[paywall: you can see the whole article in 'anonymous view' through startpage.com]

More on the situation:
https://mybroadband.co.za/news/energy/267263-south-africas-electricity-system-is-falling-apart-and-it-is-much-bigger-than-just-eskom.html

How to bring back the lights in South Africa?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @02:38AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @02:38AM (#834184)

    Also see here for South Africa [blackagendareport.com] and here for Venezuela [blackagendareport.com].

  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday April 24 2019, @02:52AM (1 child)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 24 2019, @02:52AM (#834190) Journal

    Half-truths presented in an emotional manner to paint some demographic as inferior or superior? Where have we heard that kind of thing before?

    “The darker peoples of the world understand clearly that what is at stake is the sovereignty of nations and people’s right to self-determination.”

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @03:01AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @03:01AM (#834193)

      The white European ruling class has quite a track record. All must rise against it, including working class whites.

      n.b. The working class cannot be divided along racial lines or it will be forever enslaved.