We are clearly being ruled by idiots who spend a lot of their time thinking of stuffed excuses for their incompetency. I suggest that we as a country call for the entire bunch to step down. Down tools and stop all progress allowing these people to go on messing us up.

If the government feels they can act this irresponsibly loosing the country millions in revenue daily, who is going to persecute these selfish narrow minded, uneducated , swine.

Who is in charge of distributing the "bonuses" if not the directors, receiving them. Do the directors determine their own bonuses? Who else would be dumb enough to reward them for completely degrading up the economy and doing nothing to prepare for this?

Any revenue lost at the end of the day revenue lost. Do our ministers have no education in how an economy works?It is like a delicate eco-system always balancing on a double edged sword....It does not matter who,when or where revenue is lost, it effects everybody including the people at a grass roots level. Soon these people will not be able afford food and basics, as obviously to make up for lost revenue, taxes will increase and pricing will go up. I think someone needs to go out there and make a concerted effort to show and teach the people that are supporting this completely untrustworthy,inefficient and irresponsible government of ours exactly what effect the actions of this government is having on their lives and is actually increasing the amount in which their families are suffering!

Don't get me wrong I am proud of a number of our accomplishments but when the bad outweighs the good and absolutely nothing is being done to change the situation. Personally, I have had enough, I will take my contribution to society, to one that will appreciate the jobs my business creates ,not be wasted and the revenue I pay in taxes is well managed and not thrown at people crippling the economy.

Good Luck, South Africa! May you survive the new dark ages in Africa. I am no longer the proud South African I once was...and predict I am not alone in supporting the brain drain!

-Proud Supporter of SA's Brain Drain!

"Where is the accountability?" The simple answer is there is none. Similarly, there is no responsibility. And what is the difference. Responsibility is forward-looking. So, if someone is 'responsible' for maintaining electricity supply, they are charged with the job of achieving that condition. 'Accountability' is backward-looking; which means taking the blame/credit for having done such-and-such. The two terms go together. Where there is responsibility, there is accountability, and vice versa. Where this couplet does not exist, or is resognized only through lup service, the tendency is to look around for someone else to BLAME (e.g., consumers and tax-payers). Likewise, where politicians play the 'blame game', one can reasonably conclude that they do not take responsibility for future investments, and hence do not consider themselves accountable for their failures. And that is why they do not resign. Because they HAVE NO SHAME. More simply put: they are UNETHICAL.

Well I believe the new government's strategies are to bring everyone to poverty let alone that "preach" poverty aliviation.

Some of us had envisaged the situation when the ORLANDO POWER STATION was closed down and people were retrenched. Orlando Power Station has been producing electricity when the law makers were in exile and hence in history of South Africa there had never been any electricity shortage.

It was for this reason that it was easy to supply other countries with our electricity and that was why it has been cheap.

The government must learn to consult and LEARN

Dr Elsh Ncakeni

My geyser is only on at 6pm and off again at 8pm so that we can bath. that's 2hrs out of 24. why must my family suffer when we have been practicing this for 6 years already. I dont have a maid which means the only thing working during the day, is the fridge. I dont have anything but the fridge plugged in as i learned a lesson a few years ago whith a power surge. All my electric goods were toasted. Why must my geyser then be controlled by the municipality? its not fair!

The "rich" may well be "getting a taste of the poor man's medicine". They also contribute a major portion of the government's tax revenue - revenue which is used (arguably) to improve the lot of the "poor man". So ... disrupt the economic life of the "rich" and p*ss them off at your people's peril, Fubbs.

On the other side, I'm gratified to see the first mention of load-shifting (ie controlling WHEN people use electricity) as opposed to just limiting HOW MUCH they use. Not surprising that this comes from Helen Zille. To date, not even Jacob Maroga has said enything that indicates he has an understanding of the difference.
Centralized geyser load control - amongst other measures - holds a lot of promise for demand management (load-shifting), PROVIDED it is properly implemented, eg that switch-back is staggered to flatten the resulting load peaks. Very sophisticated systems have been installed in certain areas, but their effectiveness is compromised by uninformed operaton.

Limiting our electricity consumption to 500 units is all well and good in theory. How will they differentiate between a household with two adults and a household with two families and a domestic worker.

I was wondering how long it would take for this absolute drivel about centralised geyser control to resurface. The Gauteng authorities abandoned the ripple switch concept about fifteen years ago for two reasons: the idea actually exacerbated the problem, the longer the geysers are switched of, the heavier the load becomes to bring back on-line, as more and more geysers cool down and are drained of their hot water, and the control system was unreliable: either didn't switch off the targeted geysers, or failed to switch them back on again. Unfortunately, the institutional memory of this past experience has probably also been lost.

Maybe the powers-that-would-like-to-think- they-be should pay more attention to the recognised processes known to those in the industry as Demand Side Management (DSM), which is a proactive planning of energy use patterns, not the current panic stricken crisis management. At the domestic level, this would include the alternative of Load Control Units (LCU) which equalises the energy demand and avoids load peaking, which is really where the problem begins. The other must do is to convert to Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL), and throw out the common fluorescent striplight, or replace their inductive ballasts with modern electronic ballasts, reducing their power consumption by HALF. The plain old incandescent globe should be taken off the market, banned, as in the civilised countries of Europe.

I am shocked that again goverment can just explain away the energy crisis as if it is something trivial. Easy to say go to be early! How any unwanted ESKOM babies do you want south africans to produce. Most South Africans are used to get by with the bare minimum. Problems with electricity could set out economy back several years. The Polokwane conference certainly showed the government that people are unhappy with how goverment is handling issues but with their persistence to create havoc is showing people that goverment are not prepared to learn from their mistakes. U are all governing yourselves out of jobs.

I am shocked that again goverment can just explain away the energy crisis as if it is something trivial. Easy to say go to be early! How any unwanted ESKOM babies do you want south africans to produce. Most South Africans are used to get by with the bare minimum. Problems with electricity could set out economy back several years. The Polokwane conference certainly showed the government that people are unhappy with how goverment is handling issues but with their persistence to create havoc is showing people that goverment are not prepared to learn from their mistakes. U are all governing yourselves out of jobs.