WATCH: “There is no electricity problem” speech by the ANC in parliament.
With the possibility of a total power blackout in South Africa now more than just a theoretical possibility, plans have been revealed to hide president Jacob Zuma in a secret location and deploy soldiers in the streets while the clever people like US embassy staff already have their evacuation plan from the country drafted.
The day the lights finally go out in South Africa, reports Reuters, a national blackout would necessitate that the Zumster and his cabinet be taken to a secret location and soldiers would be deployed at national key points, such as the SA Reserve Bank and the SABC’s head office in Auckland Park, Johannesburg.
City Press reports Cabinet has already been briefed by top Eskom officials about the risk of a total national electricity blackout. Quoting “senior government sources” City Press says Eskom presented “a bleak picture” of what would happen if load shedding failed and South Africa’s electricity grid shuts down completely.
“It’s a fact. They said we needed to do maintenance because the system was unreliable and would shut down,” said a senior government official. Eskom warned government that, if the system crashed, it would take at least two weeks to reboot.
US embassy staff in Pretoria is ready to evacuate South Africa safely the day the lights go out.
Eskom warned government it had no option but to continue load shedding, despite senior ANC and government officials being unhappy about the power cuts. “We can’t afford a total blackout. We don’t have that luxury,” the official is quoted.
Meanwhile a technical fault at South Africa’s only nuclear power plant has cut close to 1 000 MW of electricity from the already strained power grid and is potentially exposing the country to more rolling blackouts.
“Unit 1 of the Koeberg power station is currently out of service due to a technical fault on the main generator transformer at the power station, which resulted in the unit being isolated from the national grid,” the utility said in a statement.
The cash-strapped company implemented power cuts for three consecutive days last week to try to prevent the national grid from being overwhelmed as demand threatens to outstrip capacity.
WATCH (something funny): The solution to South Africa’s Electricity Problem
