After recently experiencing and being frustrated at our electricity being cut after every oh so many hours, I was happy to hear Eskom announce that loadshedding was over for now. We just reached home on Saturday (after going to Park Rynie ) for the day & we experienced the last bout of load shedding, little did we know, that we had nothing really to be excited about..
During the early hours of Sunday morning (I’m always up the earliest and sometimes, I never sleep), I noticed that the water pressure was extrrrrremely low. Considering this as just one of those things, I plugged on my washing machine and waited for the machine to fill. My machine took an HOUR, yep, a whole entire ONE HOUR to fill water for the first fill ONLY. I was annoyed. I mean with three kids, a dog and a husband, I really didnt need any more drama on my hands.
Going to shower was my last straw.. the water was barely coming out of the shower.. it was as though someone was dropping the water, one drop at a time through a medicine dropper. I managed to shower, in a very bad mood too, mind you and then it just all fell apart. Dishes were in the sink and I was ready to wash them except now, they (yes, the powers that be) had COMPLETELY cut off our water.
Residents of our area did contact the municipality who replied by saying that they were not sure when water would be restored as a dam with low water levels was supplying our area. They were however dispatching water tankers.
Water tankers? Yipppeee right? WRONG. Because I have THREE small children and STAIRS to get to the road AND still a small driveway.. now, you want me to carry water up and down there? How would I manage? To make matters worse, this miracle water tanker was NOT coming to every road; instead it was parked off in one area for people to come collect.
But it gets better.. The place that this tanker chose to park would require me to walk up a hill with three small children (mind you, Myra is two months old..she would need to be carried), fetch water and then carry the baby and watch the other two while carrying a heavy bucket of water AND I cant even carry two because what about carrying baby? What about the elderly? How would they manage to do this? Those with walking sticks and wheel chairs?
Every month we pay our electricity and water bill on time. Im sure its not just us, most people do this. Yet look at the trouble that we are having; the services that we pay for are services that we receive when the Government decides to let us have them.
I heard on TV a statement about how the people are bad but the organization is not, okay, fine, agreed but what is the organization is doing to change? Is the organization not made up of those same bad people? Why is an entire nation suffering for the bad decisions taken by a few people?
I know, I know, people are apparently also to blame because they have voted for the ruling party and thats how the party got elected to make all these decisions that affect us BUT these people were also lead to believe that the party was capable of making good, informed decisions on behalf of its people. This belief was also generated by the fake promises that were made by said party.
I may not be too smart but as a woman, I use this thing called a BUDGET.. also, when budgetting, there are certain luxurious things that I may leave out if I feel that our spending is going overboard. For example, I need Lights and water to survive. So I won’t spend MILLIONS OF RANDS within this particular year to build a statue/monument but instead, I will use that same money to help in whatever way possible to KEEP THE LIGHTS on and potentially solve the electricity crisis. I can always build my monument later, its not like we dont have any at all.
Now as much as it sounds like all I’m doing is blaming the Government because hey, who doesn’t want to blame the government. They HAVE provided FREE WATER & sanitation to areas that have squatters etc. Sadly, these free necessities are NOT TAKEN care off. The water that we so desperately need is being wasted. Tongaat went without water for THREE days but in certain places, water is just flowing with no one to care to turn off the tap. Dont even THINK that I’m joking, I have VIDEO proof.
I have NO FRIKKEN idea on how to fix this country because I don’t even think we know its TRUE state of affairs.. to be honest, unless you’re in the presidential seat, I don’t think you or I will ever know.. so how will we work together to fix South Africa? Do any of YOU have a plan? Do you have an opinion? Does the wastage of our basic needs make you as mad as it makes me? Let me know in the comments about how you feel.