GAMES: GameSpot: Best of 2008 | GameFAQs | SportsGamer MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com

Phantomracer

Blackout.......

It seems South Africa seems to be going under some serious changes, from BEE (black economic empowerment), to a Jocob Zuma being a candidate for president(he has numerous cases against him, including rape, fraud, arms deals, etc..)

But the change that irritates us (south africans the most,) is that all of a suddent Eskom (the electricity providers for SA), has more than enough power to sell to other countries , but way too little power for its two biggest cities. since this week we have been expereiencing rather annoying power cuts, which has caused businesses to lose billions, modems to blow , etc...

Now its not like we dont have enough power stations, infact we got more than enough, including Nuclear power, wind power, solar power which is available on da market, and also the traditional coal powerplants.

The powercuts has also costed me my job as I cant work until the 15th

The thing is, SA is changing unfavourably and if we want to host the 2010 world cup, then a start would be to keep our electricity and not selll it.

Posted by Phantomracer, 01/22/2008 8:14am
10 Comments |

Comments

Previous | Next

Page: 1

AceBermanX

Sorry to hear man. Hope things eventually get better.

Posted 01/22/2008 9:15am

KoM-EgeN

hmm... i know how ya feel, here in Pakistan, were suffering from a power crisis of electricity, gas and a shortage of wheat. My country is in a bit of a crisis. there is a daily load shedding for abt 3 hours. No electricity for three hours daily!!! and for some reason its got minus 2 in my city and my city is known for being one of the hottest ever, last summer the max temp was 51 celcius. this is the first time the temp had a steep decline in alota years, Damn global warming. But due to extreme cold, Pakistan is on a gas shortage as well

but anyway hope things work out, i already know the fate of my country

Posted 01/22/2008 11:15am

samsengir

Bejesus! I think all states are going through one crisis or another. However to get back on topic. What official reason have Eskom given for power cuts? And what is the unofficial word on the street instead?

Posted 01/22/2008 5:49pm

HydraX7

hope everything gets better soon.

Posted 01/23/2008 3:23am

Phantomracer

@ samsengir: 'a lack of resources ' was eskoms escuse. However, coal powerplants isnt the only power we have, as I said earlier, we do have nuclear energy , wind energy plants and a whole lot more. We also hosted the cricket and rugby world cup once and still had enough power. @ komegin- I wish you luck, but how did your country become like it is?

Futhermore, our neiboring countries still gets their power from us-with no powercuts.

Posted 01/23/2008 9:00am

Phantomracer

the unoffial word on the street, is that in order to save money eskom prolonged the period when the service stations should be serviced. So these stations became worn out and thus a massive cut .(dont make sense though seeing that the CEO of eskom earns more than our president ).

The other new sis that either something fishy is boiling in eskom itself or the stations were sabotaged.....

Posted 01/23/2008 9:03am

iSa91

Sound pretty bad for you. Or maybe corruption? At least in Germany, the electricity providers are very currupt (but there are no power-cuts ...).

Well, I wish you the very best for your country. And also to you, KoM-EgeN

Posted 01/23/2008 12:20pm

antiredcap

I with you on this one! I wonder how long it's gonna go on for! this week seems to be a LITTLE bit better than the last 2 weeks. Funny how the Arcadia area never goes out, could it be because the president stays there!!!!

Posted 01/23/2008 9:46pm

samsengir

Hmm. To save money sounds quite likely. It doesn't matter if the company is near bankruptcy - the head honcho will always demand his or hers extortionate pay. In the UK we have one completely corrupt and inefficient company that is completely subsidised by the common public. It is overinflated, overpaid, does not deliver and dictates terms and conditions to the public who are ultimately the end users. This useless company is called the government and if they were ever accountable for their actions......

Back to power stations. I know that in my country we are heading for trouble as a lot of our coal stations are due to be decomissioned soon with our current nuclear reactors due to cease in about ten years. Building of new stations has not even begun though it is estimated to take twenty years to supply what the current times demand!

Posted 01/24/2008 8:58pm

iSa91

In Germany there are four corrupt campanies that divided Germany into four parts so there is no competition anymore. They can rule the prices and disable new companies to get into the market. Their mangers - of course - have an income of 5 million each. Everyone knows it and there are laws against it in Germany - bit it's really hard to get them, it's really really complicated, because they have clever and high-paid lawyers that keep them from being sentenced.

The positive thing is we don't need to worry about getting electricity - Germany has the most wind wheels in the world - and the other things, too.

Posted 01/25/2008 7:14am

Previous | Next

Page: 1