Load shedding is something we like to make light of, until we’re halfway through making dinner and we are plunged into darkness. Thanks Eskom, looks like takeaways once again then.

We still have it relatively easy compared to poor old Zambia, the country suffering power failures that sometimes amount to 10 hours a day. As you can imagine, this has resulted in some serious disorder, this below from News24:

[This] has created chaos at petrol stations and severely hampered the already embattled mining industry.

One obvious sign of the day time power outages is the line of vehicles at local filling stations since petrol and diesel can only be pumped when power is on.  But the major sufferers have been the copper mines, that are both the largest users of power and the biggest contributors to the national fiscus.

The mining industry’s lack of output has seen a loss of jobs and much of the blame has been laid at the feet of those in charge of Kariba dam:

Large quantities of water were apparently released when there was not enough upstream flow to replenish the dam and drive the turbines that supply electricity.

One plus side for those looking at playing the property market is that values have drastically decreased, cashed up investors now able to snap up land at knock-down prices.

I’m sure that will come as scant consolation for your average Zambian. Here’s hoping they can still get their hands on some grub that manages to beat the load-shedding crisis.

[source:news24]