Welcome back from another weekend of load shedding.

It was a weekend for romance, so there are worse times to have a candlelit dinner, but at least the taps didn’t run dry.

For the people of Harrismith, a town in the Free State, that’s not always the case.

We all know the drill – criminally corrupt politicians continue unchecked while the people suffer – and the residents of this town decided to take matters into their own hands.

Here’s a short write-up via the BBC:

For many areas in South Africa that is a reality. But in the town of Harrismith one group of residents, sick of intermittent water and power have taken the matter into their own hands.

Andrew Harding has been to find out how they are fixing their town.

This short segment, filmed by Stuart Phillips and edited by Christian Parkinson, shows what happens when people pull in the same direction.

It’s a great illustration of working together, punctuated by one politician trotting out the same nonsense we’ve been hearing for years:

Great to see, but also another stellar example of how maladministration hits those on the ground hardest, while municipalities around the country plunder and mismanage for their own financial gain.

By the way, you may recall Carte Blanche did a piece on some of these heroes back in January:

[source:bbc]