Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Two Not-So-Nice Things Happening in South Africa

There is a bit of a "thing" going on in South Africa right now. I don't know if it has hit international news.
The short version of it (my version) is as follow: As economic times are not great and jobs are even harder than usual to get yet another wave of they locally call "xenophobia" is hitting South Africa. This translate in frustrated poor South Africans attacking workers and business holders who are not South African because they are perceived as stealing their jobs and their opportunities. There was a riot in Durban a few days ago and they became violent as non-South African started to defend themselves.
One of the particularly weird thing happening right now is that apparently there is a wave of texts and messages on social medias warning (or is it threatening) that this Wednesday in Johannesburg they will start killing foreigners. I am pretty sure that they mean foreigners who they perceive as stealing their jobs, but nobody really knows what they mean and how it will go.
Things are apparently so bad that Malawi is saying that it will repatriate its nationals.

The other thing happening here, and this too is not new, is "Load shedding". South Africa cannot produce enough electrical power for its needs so its power company (Eskom, a state owned company) cuts the power to various areas at various times so less electricity is being used. About eight years ago load shedding was quite common and then it stopped. I haven't been in South Africa in nearly two years and now they are back. There is a schedule to warm people but it changes all the time and anyway means nothing really as it is not followed. This is not a temporary problem.
 And just try to imagine what it is like to try to run a business (shop or restaurant) when you have no power. Or what it is like to drive around Jo'burg when traffic lights (called "robots" here) are not working.

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