Load shedding

Dear Family and Friends,

We ve had an electricity crisis of major proportions this past week
which has bought the routines of everyday life to a standstill.
Businesses without computers, offices unable to access records,
machines that cannot be operated and of course, no electricity means
no water which makes things even harder still. Repeated calls to
electricity supplier ZESA have yielded nothing: no explanation,
apology or excuses just two little words spat contemptuously at you
for daring to ask: load shedding they say. 12, 15, 18 and even 22
hours a day we ve been subjected to load shedding at a time when
the country is desperate for business, production and growth. One man
home businesses have come to a complete standstill. Small businesses
without the means to provide their own electricity are complaining
that they ve been losing about five hundred dollars a day. Bigger
businesses estimate lost income of around five thousand dollars a
day, not to mention employees sitting around doing nothing who will
all have to be paid at the end of the month. Employees who came to
work in the morning without having had a proper meal and will go home
to much the same: a smoky fire outside and no water to bath or wash
with.

Every outlet that can afford to run them, have resorted to
generators. In all shapes and sizes the machines clutter pavements
and alleyways and pedestrians have become adept at picking a safe
path through the wires and conducting their business over the
clattering, thumping and roaring of the engines. The power cuts have
become so ridiculous this week that even the petrol stations have
resorted to using generators to pump fuel into customers vehicles.
It s a slow process if you happen to be in a car though because there
is a steady line of people on foot jumping the queue as they wait to
fill plastic bottles with a litre or two of petrol for generators.

Craziest of all about this week s non existent electricity is the
sure and certain knowledge that come the end of the month our
electricity bills will be as high as they always are. First world
bills for fourth world service, or even no service at all.

The knock on effects of these extended power cuts is having a
devastating impact on the environment. From early in the morning to
last thing in the evening the sound of wood chopping is all around.
Emerging from bush and woodland all the time is a steady stream of
women carrying huge piles of newly cut wood on their heads. Some is
for their own use but more is for sale, a small bundle of half a
dozen pieces of indigenous wood costing five US dollars enough to
cook perhaps two or three meals.

Despite it all, Zimbabweans really have become masters of ingenuity
when faced with adversity so now, if you know where to go and have a
few dollars, you can have a haircut or charge your cell phone on
someone s generator. What a shame it is that ZESA aren t blessed with
a similar ingenuity. Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy.

Copyright cathy buckle 28 August 2010 . www.cathybuckle.com

For information or orders of my new book about Meryl Harrison's animal rescues : "INNOCENT VICTIMS" or previous books "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears," or to subscribe/unsubscribe to this newsletter, please write to:
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