Fun With Power Problems

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:00:10 GMT

Eskom. A single word that now inspires hate and remorse in every single South African. Especially those in my industry.

ZAY2K10 Bug

I'm coining it. We have all heard of the Y2K30 bug (which is 10x more lethal than the Y2K strain), but here is a new one. South Africa and the 2010 Soccer World Cup. There are going to be huge infrastructure problems in South Africa when thousands of demanding tourists cross our border. It won't only be a electricity problem, but I can tell you what will causes it all: a power problem.

The Current Government and Situation

The current government is corrupt and completely and utterly unorganised. They resort to giving their top brass multi-million Rand bonuses; when, firstly, they don't deserve those bonuses and secondly, they can't afford those bonuses. They run essential services like they are capitalist ventures: sure they might publicise the telecoms and electricity providers - but certainly, as far as electricity goes, competitors are illegal.

Telecoms were only recently opened to competition, but I might add we have yet to see consumer services from the competitor (which we welcome with open arms). Telkom still reigns supreme and most consumers will most probably be too complacent to switch to the alternative. Hopefully South Africa can do something about its telecoms situation because it is just plain down-right annoying (our Internet services cost a small fortune).

Cellular Ogopolies

There are two cell phone providers in South Africa (essentially), Vodacom and MTN. Both are ripping customers off from sickening heights. When Virgin Mobile came through I switched from Vodacom straight away: but it was just too plain limited - and my girlfriend is on Vodacom (so it works out cheaper, but only slightly).

Given all of this, I must admit that Vodacom is trying pretty damn hard to give their customers good bang-for-buck. I was surprised when they allowed prepaid customers to buy data bundles for as little as R189 (about US$30) for 500mb, while that is a burst of rain for us, our American friends still point and throw stones at us.

Uneducated

Our current political party is dominated by uneducated, immoral or just plain stupid delegates. I am sure if you look up most of them you will see that they have degrees: 'complementary' degrees from our (otherwise hopeless) brown-nosing universities. I sure wish I could get a degree for landing a job, but I don't tow as much power (or as big bonuses) as they do.

Computer Industry

The computer industry is blossoming, world-wide; and in South Africa we are biding our time between power cuts, spending our incomes on bandwidth and taking pills to combat our depressing situation. Wasted money, wasted time - which means wasted money squared.