A day in the life of a South African....

A few of my friends have checked in to see how things are going because of everything they are hearing about what is going on in South Africa at the moment. I know that there is a lot going on in many countries, so I am not taking away from that, I am just venting today because I feel broken, disillusioned and scared. In true South African style we joke about everything, but it is no longer a joke.

We have been sitting on 10 to12 hours a day with no electricity. We have what they call load shedding, so they rotate who has power. So 3 x a day your power is turned off for 2 to 4 hours depending on the Stage we are on.
What does this mean? It means you wake up with no electricity, ok we can do this, we now have lights and gas etc - but no, you can't dry your hair if you wash it. You leave home an extra 20 minutes early because as you drive to your destination, traffic lights are out, so you queue in traffic. It takes you an extra 40 minutes, maybe an hour, maybe more, all depending on how many lights are out. In between that you are dodging pothole after pothole because they haven't fixed the roads. Grass and weeds are overgrown on the sides of the road, so pedestrians are encroaching on the bit of road we have left. The number of beggars on the roads is increasing, you look away, trying not to see the pain in their eyes, you help some, but you can't help all. You get to the office - oh imagine that, now their electricity goes out for a few hours. Inverter on, ok at least I can carry on doing emails. Then you maybe get a few hours with power and then it's time to go home....yep, you guessed it, more lights out, more traffic. You stop at the store to get some food, because we can't stock our fridges and freezers. You pick up a salad, it's got hints of brown on because even their generators cannot keep up with the amount of load shedding we having. You go on over to the ready cooked chickens, it's empty - everyone has bought what was there and stocks are low because farmers are having to kill off millions of chicks because there isn't power to do what they need to do to and it makes its impossible for them to run profitably. Take aways are running low on food choices whilst farmer cannot farm. In the meantime small business after small business has closed down because they cannot operate due to the loadshedding, their income has reduce so much and cost of living has increased substantially and they simply cannot afford to pay for the power back up systems...so they do the only thing they can - shut their doors and hope to find a job. CV after CV later, sorry no one is hiring because even big business is feeling the pinch.

Every week you hear of someone's father, brother, friend etc that committed suicide, they just couldn't anymore. Some will tell you the story of how people spoke about "un-aliving" themselves so at least their policy will pay out and their families can get money.
People are desperate, angry, sad, depressed...everywhere you go it's hardship after hardship and our already crazy crime stats get worse as more and more people lose jobs and become desperate.

Beaches are in a state in some provinces, with the ocean being contaminated for months now and just nothing being done about it. Apparently there is no money, but it seems government has loads of money for fancy cars, big events, international travel - awarding contracts to people who cannot do the job. A R50 broom charged at R2000 because there is so much corruption. Everyone is just stealing left, right and centre - backhand after back hand.

Right now it is harder than ever to live in this country and the future is bleak, but many of us cannot leave... but the light at the end of the tunnel is dying fast....all I think is I am a pretty optimistic, positive person and if I feel the way I do today, my heart breaks for those who battle to hold their head up when things get tough.

Anyway, I am sure no one even read this far, but I needed to spew this out somewhere and doing it on a local social network that will spread more disillusion to the people going through this was not an an option....

Cry, the beloved country 🇿🇦