About the Eskom blackouts...

Remember how we'd have a blackout or two every week, and how small businesses were forced to spend hundreds or thousands of rands on generators? The money South Africa lost during that period was counted in the billions. And a few entrepreneurs made a killing importing generators ;-)

Of course, from what we understand, it wasn't so much Eskom's fault, as they'd warned the government a decade before about this looming crisis, but the government chose to ignore them. Still, Eskom won't be forgiven for their blatant lies about the reasons for the blackouts.

On a funny note, remember when some mad national government minister insinuated that the leader of the opposition party at the time – old prim-and-proper Tony Leon – leopard crawled* into the Koeberg nuclear power station and dropped a bolt into the reactor core to cause the blackouts? Our government's waaaay more entertaining than the Bushes and Blairs of the time!

*Zapiro's conclusion, if memory serves.

Konrad remembers driving at night on the M5 in Cape Town, no lights anywhere. It was spooky. And then some panicking motorist almost killed him by driving straight through a dead robot crossing at a 100km/h.

It felt like our country was finally falling apart. People everywhere became pessimistic about their future and started organising escape routes to countries like Australia and the UK. That year was a stark reminder of just how dependent we are on our infrastructure. Thankfully, that all seems to be in the past. And we still got the Soccer World Cup ;-) Oh, and president Zuma hasn't started eating his subjects yet, as newspapers would have us believe at the time.

Konrad also remembers overhearing a group of German tourists in a dark restaurant in the Cape Town CBD during one of the first blackouts. Couldn't hear exactly what they were saying, but they definitely got their authentic "African experience," hargh hargh.