You guys, South Africa is seriously going to shit. It is complete and utter bloody chaos here.
So I posted last week about my manicure being "courtesy of Eskom". Eskom is our national power supplier (and supplier of approximately half of the electricity used in southern Africa). Except they're not supplying elecricity, they're supplying chaos. Basically, what's happened is Eskom has done the bare minimum of maintenance on their plants for the last decade (some say two), in order to be able to provide their top dogs with bigger bonus packages, which is totally sick. Now we're in a situation where most of the plants are non-functioning, and those that are keep having "faults". So in the last month alone, the power has been switched off (at various times around the country) for a total of 10 or more daylight hours every weekend, and between 2 and 6 daylight hours per weekday. They call this "loadshedding" and it's meant to "decrease stress" on the power supply.
Now, I'm all for living with less electricity, BUT businesses are failing because they're forced to close every time there's loadshedding. The water purification plants in my home town are not able to function - so now the town is facing severe water restrictions over and above those already in place thanks to a predicted 18-month drought.
Oh and guess what, December is bonus month and you can bet the fat cats are still getting their big cheques despite all of this.
To quote the Kaiser Chiefs (the band, not the soccer team) "I predict a riot!"
Our plan has always been to hie us hence to the good old US of A (MIL is a citizen, DH is a passport-holder though not yet a citizen), and were there no obstacles we would be getting the hell out of Dodge right now. Alas, our finances are not such that we can easily move right now, and DH doesn't want to leave just yet anyway because he's worried that he won't be able to get/afford his medication over there, which is obviously a competely valid concern.
I am just so damned frustrated. NOTHING works here when there's no power. And the best part is, we aren't direct Eskom customers - we go through our municipality (not that we're given a choice) and the municipality hasn't paid THEIR Eskom bill in heaven only knows how long. It also means that, while most of the rest of the country has a "schedule" for their loadshedding, provided by Eskom (which Eskom does SOMETIMES actually follow), allowing them to plan their meals, laundry, down-time etc., we do not. We don't even have a municipal schedule, we just get shut off whenever the hell they feel like it.
I am going completely mad.
/vent
So, um... what's getting your goats, grating your tits, and grumping your gusses?