Zulu king weighs in on load-shedding crisis
By Marlan Padayachee
With communities in the 100-kilometre Greater Durban-eThekwini Region triangle communities – including the mega inner-city township of Chatsworth’s 250 000 residents and businesses reeling under the pressure of persistent power blackouts and outages – KwaZulu-Natal’s King Misuzulu KaZwelithini has weighed in heavily on how hard-pressed communities were bearing the brunt of blackouts triggered regularly by energy supplier Eskom’s erratic power supply.
The monarch touched on the escalating fuel and paraffin prices and frightening state of food security.
As the new monarch made his views known on the load shedding scourge, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) revealed that South Africans experienced almost 900 hours of power blackouts before the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 and 63% load-shedding before 2021.
Speaking in isiZulu at the 194th death anniversary of his royal forebear, legendary warrior-king Shaka Zulu, the yet to be coronated AmaZulu monarch spoke out against a number of burning issues and its impact on the lives of ordinary families and businesses – and his subjects numbering 10-million.
‘’Petrol prices and load-shedding are affecting South Africans, people are affected by load shedding and even the food in their fridges are getting stale. Lots of things are not right in South Africa. This is a challenge to all of us to do the right thing. We hope the leaders will get things right,’’ he told a large audience – including his royal family, dignitaries, amabutho, maidens and political leaders, acting premier Nomagugu Simelane, Arts and Culture MEC Amanda Bani-Mapena and COGTA MEC Sihle Zikalala, at the Stanger High School sports grounds on Heritage Day on Saturday.
Ahead of bleak forecasts that load shedding is bound to seriously affect agricultural products and produce, the king called on communities to alleviate poverty and hunger by using the land to grow food.
King Goodwill Zwelthini KaBhekazulu’s heir apparent and successor paid homage at the King Shaka Day (uMkhosi weLembe) commemoration on the epic role played by the great warrior-king Shaka kaSenzangakhona, who founded and built the Zulu nation by uniting 100 tribes and factions, and was killed by his step brother, Dingaan, on 22 September 1828.
As the ANC government battled with the electricity supply crisis with communities and business bearing the brunt of the blackouts, with energy experts calling for Eskom engineers to lead the battle to restore normal power supplies, CSIR senior engineer Joanne Calitz said SA experienced 859 hours of load shedding before the start of the Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020, followed by 63% of load shedding in 2021, and 65% in 2022, based on its annual reports –totaling 15 years of load shedding, power outages and blackouts.
