South Africa is already in their own recession and this is self inflicted.
Over the last few days the load shedding in South Africa has got slightly worse than before. Just to give you an idea the 2 hour power cuts have now increased to 4 hours. We are on stage 6 which roughly works out to 6 hours of power lost per day per household/business. I say roughly as today we are still on the midday power cut and it is 4pm with no sign of power and have already lost 4 hours prior to this with one more still to come at 10pm until 2am. We are staring at 10 hours minimum being cut today and now imagine a hospital with that issue.
The report said that 77 out of 213 major hospitals receive electricity directly from the supplier which tells us 136 don't. The hospital I was in recently is a private hospital with solar and a generator as back up. Obviously this just runs the basics as high tech energy guzzlers like the MRI would have to be switched off during these times.
I do feel for the people at home on oxygen or life support as this is costly maintaining a generator. 8 hours is R250 ($15) and I will be filling up for a second time again this evening.
You may be wondering why a country that is known for it's sunshine doesn't have solar installation everywhere. The truth is you cannot steal from the sun as it is free energy and therefore not a favored government option. Coal and diesel as a back up plan is far more lucrative for doing shady corrupt deals.
The economy is in such a shambles I honestly don't know how some companies are making ends meet as this is not easy.
Forget health and safety as in some shops without sufficient power to light the entire store the shopping experience takes on a whole new meaning. I hope other around the world don't get to experience this as this is not fun times as this is showing a country falling apart whilst you are living through it.
This is an easy fix however and all it takes is money which the country has none left so that is a problem. This is the result of corruption and greed happening over many years which sadly leads to total disaster.
Finally my family asked today if we are putting the generator on today as I have been rationing it's usage as a few hours here and there is ok, but not 10 hours plus every day. This cannot go on like this as something is going to break and most likely it will be the generator which is not a funny thought when you come to think about it. This is like camping at home with none of the luxuries available.